The war of darkness and light
by Fightstars
Summary: The metalheads are dead, the world is united, but Gol and Maia still threaten peace. the dark maker's ship is surviving well, and a fleet is coming, yet Jak still feels confident. Sequel to battle of darkness and light. J&K T&A D&T OC&S OC&OC R&R C12 is u
1. Intro: Dei Grasse Ok Lumin

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well hello again and welcome to my second book, i decided to start earlier than most people do a new story, so here I am. For those who have not read my fisrt book, _the battle of darkness and light, _you should go to it and read it first, or else you'll never understand the storyline, hopefully I'll get more reviews this time, wink wink, and maybe some critiques as well, it's always nice to know what you like, or don't.

**THE WAR OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT**

INTRODUCTION: DEI GRASSE OK LUMMIN

Jak stood upon the high pinnacle of Mt. Precursor, the largest mountain in the world. In front of him was Illumi, in all his splendour and glory, _the Sword of Freedom_ in his hand, the coronation was beginning, after the fiasco in Hora Dailan Jak had made several preperations, including securing the alliance for each and every one of the nations participating, and requesting the naming of the world. The last time the precursors had come passing and gotten stranded on the planet it was only because of chance, the world had been abondoned by the makers because of the metal-head threat, and was no longer registered in the galactic maps, meaning that it must be named or it can never be entered into the records, and the precursors will never be able to find them again.

The coronation had been planned by most of the light army's best and brightest, Jak was to be the man who's name was registered for representative, Illumi was to be known as the world's eco being, and Seem would be head monk, the head monk and eco being had already bee done, Seem was at the back praying in a strange ancient precurian tongue.

Mt. precursor was chosen for it's stupendous glory, it had been the sight of the metal-head nest during the war times, yet had still managed to regain it's glory and beauty, although the great spore chimneys rising over the land were still a blight on the montain, though it was made up for by it's stupendous growth rate, put down to high light eco concentration, which allowed trees to grow at a fraction their normal rate. And after only four years it was already looking like the forbidden jungle again, which had crawled over it's foothills centuries ago.

The light commander spoke to the masses of people gathered below to watch the spectacle, his voice magnified through some means of eco. "People of nations far and wide, today is a great day for your world," he yelled over the high rising peaks of the old nest, "for today, we will witness the naming of the world, under this man's word will the planet be named." He pointed to Jak. "And under this man's name will the planet be registered with the great makers, so as we can finally get the peace this planet has long fought and died for. What is the name of our chosen hero?"

"My name is Jak Mar, of Haven city." Answered Jak.

"And do you accept the heavy burden of being this planet's representative in the wider universe?"

"I can do all I can to carry this responsibility."

"Then what is the name that you have chosen for this world?"

Jak cried out from the podium to the teeming groups below, who were hanging on his every word. "Under the great precursor's watch, under the green sun, and under the gaze of these witnesses, I name this planet...Dei Grasse Ok Lummin!" He yelled the last words so that all could hear, and a great cheer rose up from the crowd, people overjoyed at the prospect of finally getting their long awaited peace. Illumi took Jak aside to talk to him.

"That was a wise choice, it means the light planet I beleive?"

"Yes, I thought it suited it after the discovery of your civilisation."

"You have done well, but you know it is not over, don't you?"

"I know, as long as Gol and Maia live we will never be safe, and neither will this world."

"You have learnt well, this world is lucky to have you protecting it, I imagine it will survive well." Illumi wandered away from the king, back into the cheering crowd, and Jak stood there contemplating what the warrior had said, he didn't get much time as Keira grabbed his arm and swung him into the fast developing party, smiling at his surprise. He looked into her deep green-blue eyes, trying to memorise every turn and twist of her sea coloured hair, every part of her beautiful face, and every part of her physique in case of the worst. She didn't know everything, she didn't know he had named the planet that for another reason, the name he had chosen, it was how he saw her, as pure light, she was the greatest treasure the planet had, but there was a place out there where danger still existed, where death still loomed over the unsuspecting people, where the fate of the world would once again be decided, in the war of darkness and light.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well that's the first bit, I hope it wasn't too unsatisfying, I think I'll be having to live up to my promise of showing the light army fight quite soon, so keep your hats on.


	2. Chapter 1: the golden surise

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: hey there faithful reeders, and unfaithful ones too. I'm glad you came back to see the next chapter, but have to ask, why? I hope you haven't suffered any seizures from looking at my apperently crap writing, if you haven't taken the hint already, GIVE ME REVIEWS!

CHAPTER 1: THE GOLDEN SUNRISE

The rolling landscape of the wasteland meandered through the gaps in the mountains, the windswept sand being whipped up by a small storm. Jak looked out over the sand from the Spargus garage, knowing what he was there to do, and not enjoying it one bit.

He had found out from scrolls hidden in the precursor temple that both a holo-cube and a quantum reflector lay at the top of the great volcano, which were both needed for the communication device in Haven forest. But recently scouts had spotted much eco creature activity in the base of the mountain, including the tail end of a legion of tiger creatures entering the lower sanctums, and the only other way in was the old racetrack built by the marauders leading in a spiral to the summit, which was sure to be heavily guarded, and what was worse, Keira had managed to squirm her way into coming again.

He turned to the small unit of Spargus, Haven, and Kras' best drivers, who had bee drafted in from all over the globe, he spoke to them in general, making sure they all knew who was in charge, racers could be very uppitty sometimes, bar none.

"Right, we all know why we're here so I'll not waste time telling you, I know for a fact that you all fancy yourselves as team leader, well it aint gonna happen, I run this gig, and not one of you is gonna muscle in, get it?"

The group gave a grudging nod, except for one racer at the back, who Jak recognised immediately as Razer.

He whispered to Keira, who was at his side. "What's that bastard doing here? I specifically said for him not to be drafted."

"I know." Said Keira in return. "But Haven council insisted that he was too good a racer to be left out of the running, and they've got information on him with a feww contacts, so he won't misbehave.

"And why wasn't I told about this? That council has too much power and influence, I need to take them down a peg or two when I get back."

"Look, just keep him in line and he won't cause trouble, he's too terrified of Rayn getting him, I hear she's quite something when she's mad." Keira broke off as she saw Razer making his way through the crowd to the pair, his usual smug grin and sleeked back hair somewhat dulled since his loss at the championship, instead he looked rather drab, his immaculate sheen greying, showing his true age, and the discolouration from all the exhaust fumes.

"Hello Jak." He said dryly. "I'd like to have a little word with you." He looked at Keira. "ALONE."

"If you're gonna say something chump, say it to my face!" Said the fiesty young mechanic, trying to boost her height to equal Razer's.

"You heard the wife." Chuckled Jak. "Go on."

"I know there's been some bad blood between us, but I wanted to stop it before it got out of hand, I was only your enemy because of Mizo, and I didn't like a life of crime too much anyway, too much aggro."

This simple sentence surprised Jak and Keira more than anything else they had heard, Razer being nice? They couldn't beleive it, literally.

"And how do I know I can trust you, you tried to kill me several times."

"I can answer that." Said a third voice, and the two turned to see Rayn coming out of the secondary gate, smiling her usual spine-chilling smile.

"As I said, I can answer that. If you want to trust him, then trust me, I can vouch for him, he's gone through an amazing change the past few weeks. Including engagement." Yo prove her strange point Rayn reached up to the driver and kissed him, then turned back to the pair, who were both looking like they could fly a hellcat down their gullet.

"Wait. What on earth? What the...Who the...I'm confused." Gabbered Jak, holding his head and wincing.

"So you two are together now." Said Keira sceptically. "That doesn't mean this isn't a ploy, you've both deceicved us in the past, we have no reason to trust you just because you're backing each other up."

"True." Admitted Rayn. "But what about the opinion of a third party." She gestured behind her and Jak saw Seem emerging from the gang of wolf-whistling racers, who she ignored and walked on to bow low to the king and queen.

"Greetings my lord Jak, I trust you have been filled in, and are showing the same suspicious tendancies that we anticipated you would."

"And, so what if I am. How can you vouch for these two? After you know all they've done." Jak couldn't beleive someone he'd trusted so much had seen fit to take the side of a known murderer and criminal, who was wanted in Mamoron, Morien, Shassa, Chairen, and even as far west as Durancas.

"I can only see what they truly intend by my power, I can look into their mindsa, as I did with yours, and see the begginings of their souls, they do not wish to harm you, I assure you." Seem looked genuine, but Jak was still paranoid, seeing the flaws in their arguement.

"And how do we know this isn't a trick, that you're the real Seem, not some guy they've picked for the job, or even a morphed eco creature sent by Gol and Maia?"

Seem didn't seem to have an answer for this, she just searched her mind for something, then raised her eyes to the young warrior's, and smiled, she once again took him to that place, inside both their minds, where all was light, and he understood. He didn't even say anything, just stood to face Razer and Rayn, and shook both their hands, and contented look on his face, as another friendship was born.

Jak stopped the moment as he saw the clouds of the storm begin to thin. "There's no time to natter about it now, we need to get in there before the next storm." He called over to the racers, who leapt into their cars and started the purring beasts. He himself jumped into his own car, the Sand Shark, and yanked Keira in with him, within a second the garage was empty and the cars were speeding across the sands.

Jak sped round the corner into the tunnel through the mountain, looking for the broken part of the wall Torn had told him to go through, he spotted it to the left and rammed his car through the piled rock, scattering the stones and clearing the way for the cars behind. The rest were faring well, no one had spotted any creatures yet, and there was no sound in the mountain except the roaring of the vehicle's engines echoing round the walls, Jak slowed his car down and held his hand for the rest to stop and the convoy ground to a standstill.

Shiv, Edgie and UR86 all hopped out of a gila stomper and demended to know what was happening, at least, everyone assumed that was what UR86 was asking. Jak didn't bother answering until Sig asked the same thing.

"I don't know, it's just a feeling, we should have met some resistance by now, they can obviously hear us rampaging around, but they're choosing not to attack, like they have an ace up their sleeve."

Sig looked worried, many years of war had taught him that your enemy is most dangerous when it's quiet, and now that he thought about it he did notice the eeire silence, the soft bibling of the lava in the canyon beside them not even reverberating any more, like some force had stopped the sound bouncing off the walls, nothing stirred, not the strange creatures that inhabited the weird world down here, not the leaves on the stranded trees, nothing.

And then there was something.

Dark shadows sprang down all around the group, felling many veterans in seconds, the others escaping to their cars. Sig and Jak leapt back into their sand sharks and hit the accelerator, speeding off and flipping the creatures over the bonnets as they went, but the things gave chase, their own steeds of darkness springing from nowhere to accompany their masters. The larger vehicles were the first to be caught, their weight slowing them down, but were saved by the large vulcan cannons mounted on their backs. The monsters soon gave up on the petty laggers and proceded to work theri way to the front, where Rayn and Razer, Sig and Seem, and Jak and Keira sped along in assaulted vehicles.

Jak rammed into a tortured creature and yanked his gun off his back just in time to shoot it as it went flying over the car's open-topped roof. Beside him Razer was easily fending off the small tiger creatures, but had trouble when larger beasts hit his custom built car, the thin frame more often suited to speed buckling under the stress of high impact, luckinly Sig managed to get hid peace maker out and shoot most of the big monsters off the racer's car, and still manage to hit all the enemies as he went past.

Jak rounded a corner, and could see a large jump coming up, some of the other cars wouldn't be able to make it, so he swerved left, and too late saw the barrier of dark beats blocking his way. There was no other way out, the way blocked by the wall of darkness was their only chance, so he stuck his hand up, hoping the others saw, and made a particular gesture in precurian, they had all been told what it meant beforehand, to ram anything that came their way, not to shoot weapons in case of friendly fire, to get out if they thought they weren't gonna make it, and last but most important of all, to open the damn throttle.

Jak shifted into sixth gear, and pummled the pedal for all it was worth, by now the animals stopping him were beggining to figure out he wasn't gonna stop, and some of the smaller ones fled, not wanting to be flattened, but the big ones stayed, not wanting to face the wrath of the twins if they survived.

Razer was the first to hit, slamming his custom Havoc into a mage that was attempting to blow up Jak's car with sorcery. The Jak, who rammed into several tortured creatures and scattered them for the others to pick off later. The rest of the group wre faring well, they had lost a few smaller cars to the lava below when they spun off after hitting an animal, or each other, but besides that moast of them made it through the barrier, and were in open track once again, the horde was still in pursuit, but this time not as fast, as if they had seen the anger of the balanced one, as they called Jak, and were now only half trying for the sake of appearances.

Jak realised he was entering a spiral the ascended up the crater of the volcano, and decided he probably wasn't gonna make it back the way he came, so he pulled out the radio in the front of the car and turned it to send, he could only record a message and then send it because of the bad reception due to being inside a mountain, but it would have to do.

"Torn!" He yelled above the howl of the creatures and the revving of the engines. "We need support, send a cargo cruiser to the upper sanctum, we can't go back the way we came, send support immediately, over." He returned the radio to it's socket and switched the send button, hoping the message reached Torn in time.

Keira decided it was time to take an active role, she climbed up onto the back of the sand shark, ignoring Jak's protests, and snapped the gun-turret out of it's fixed position, spinning it round to face the behind mass. She shot off several rapid succesion blasts and blew apart three tiger creatures, an evil grin spreading across her features, behind them the rest were doing the same, all the other that had partners that were still alive were clambering up to the gun and following Keira's example, the mob of animals numbers were halved in under a minute.

Jak could see the holding chamber coming up, the marking on the side saying that none may enter save the servants of the makers, so he took the route to it, knoing that the creatures weren't able to follow. His spluttering engine soared over the leadge at the door, the other's cars following, as soon as they were in Kerira leapt out and rushed to what she recognised as a device that could close the doors, just in time, the light eco shot out from the doors on the outside, zapping the creatures, but it couldn't hold them off for ever.

Razer parked his car up against the precursor metal doors and attempted to bar the huge fluctuations as the creatures on the opposite side repeatedly slammed into the crack. One gila stomper had made it through, the one containing Shiv, Edgie, and UR86, who all hopped to the ground and started panicking.

Shiv scurried around shouting threats and expletives at anyone who got in his way, shouting to anyone that would listen that he was claustrophobic. While Edgie ran to the wall nearest what he thought was outside and hammered trying to break through feebly.

"What're we gonna do?" Shouted a small dimunitive gun-manner with an emblem on his shoulder showing that he was a member of the Krew family gang. "We've got monsters on one side, and the boss in here so we can't do anything stupid or she'll kill us, just for boredom."

Jak grabbed the annoying person. "SHUT UP!" He yelled. "If we're gonna survive then either we're gonna eat each other, starting with you, or you're gonna shut it and let me think of a way out of here, now what's your choice?" The driver held up two fingers...to indicate the second number of course, he didn't wanna be eaten.

Keira called Jak across, and showed him something, a small passage leading into the wall. Jak stuck his head in, and could just make out the floating forms of the quantum reflector and holo cube at the other side, there was no other tunnels leading off to the side on close inspection, so Jak deemed it safe.

The mob of men clustered around the small hole, desperate to get through as soon as possible, pushing and shoving everyone else out the way, one even mistakenly pushed Rayn when she got near the tunnel, then realised his mistake and let her through, going straight to the back of the line to avoid Razer. Jak emerged through the other side first, flollowed by Keira, then Sig, and the lot from Kras. In the center of the huge room was the pedastal of the artifacts, the two relics shining in a way they never had in the desert, or even in the forest, surrounded by the rest of the precursor metal, the objects shone and glittered, as if someone had cleaned them only yesterday.

Jak reached out to take the floating relics, but as his hand stretched out towards the light ejecting from the round hole in the pedastal, a high ringing sound peirced the air, the very noise hurting the elf's sensitive ears, and in the wall opposite the group, a door opened, and the sound of voices echoed from the opening, crys of laughter and delight came to the ears of the adventurers instead as three small orange balls came whizzing out, landing at Jak's feet and unrolling, into the precursors.

"Ahh, Mar, we were hoping it would be you, though not with such company." Said the leader, picking his staff up and dusting it off. By now Jak was used to strange things happening that day, so he wasn't surprised by the sudden appearance of the 'cursors, much.

"What the hell are you two doin' here, you're meant to be out protecting the universe."

"Oh we've got an entire planet of precursors to do that for us, we don't need to waste precious time when we should be helping this planet back on it's feet. Now, we will need to attend to the naming of the planet..."

"Done."

"Huh? Oh, well then, we still have to destroy the metal-head lands..."

"Done."

"Well, there's the imminent arrival of the dark maker fleet."

"Done...No, wait, what was that last one?"

"The arrival of the dark maker fleet." The colour drained from the faces of the onlookers behind Jak, they all remembered the dark sattelites that had landed in their cities, Kras had had a particular problem as they tended to strike their ships as they sailed out. The leader looked aghast. "You mean, you didn't know about the fleet. Dear Eldar we're doomed, what did you all think, you destroy one of the dark makers greatest ships single-handedly and expect to get away with it?"

"Uuhhhh, yeah." Said Jak, rather stupidly.

"Well that's not the least of our problems, we also have the appearance of the dark eco creatures, on every planet that has had metal-heads inhabiting it we have had severe problems with dark eco creatures who appeared just after the metal-heads were destroyed, they're..."

"They've already sprung up, and they're being led by Gol and Maia." Said Keira, the three 'cursors stared at her, puzzled as to who she was.

Jak noticed and cut in. "This is Keira, my wife, she also has the light of life as you may like to know." The precursor's eyes widened at this.

"But I thought, like it was only us dudes that could get the rad power." The surfer said, then the dummy entered the converstion too.

"But wasn't there this one guy on the planet that I can't say who could do it? He was cool, where is he anyway?"

"Never mind never mind, what's important is that we use this ability to the highest possible , uuhh, possibility." Said the leader again, surprised at his own lack of sophisticated words. (A/N I love doing that)

Jak stopped nattering as he heard a crash from down the hole, the creatures had finally broken through, they wouldn't take long to make it in.

"Come on, leave the artifacts, we don't need them, d'you know a way out of here?" He asked the precursors.

"I'm afraid not, we didn't build it as an exit, we expected to be found before the creatures awakened, we thought you'd take longer to destroy the metal-heads." The two broke off as the others searched for an opening in the wall.

"We didn't, when we got to the Hora Dailan the metal-heads were all dead."

"WHAT! But the creatures are terified of the metal-heads, they've never emerged before the destruction of the Hora Quan, not on any planet."

"Well obviously Gol and Maia found a way around that fear, they're very good with fear."

The talking couldn't continue, as a huge detonation sounded throughout the hall, and part of the wall was blasted inwards, and on the other side, was a huge transport ship, prepped for takeoff and with holding bays for the cars, though they wouldn't be needed.

Torn leapt across the gap between the wall and the ship, and swerved to avoid the charging mass of racers trying to get away from the creatures, who were almost through the tunnel.

"Jak!" He shouted. "We gotta go. The crater's breaking up."

Jak picked the 'cursor up, much to the being's surprise, and tossed him heavily into the ship, then leaped across himself, and sealed the door, just as the first wave broke through the tunnel. Jak counted and looked around for his friends, they had lost Shiv and Edgie, they had stayed behind to cause some death among the enemy ranks, courageous in the end.

The huge metal interior of the ship was unwelcoming to the precursors, so they went up the the higher levels, and Jak went too, and was amazed. Golden light flooded the room from the huge windows, it was just nearing sunrise, and the green-yellow sun shimmered over the towering beakon in Spargus, dwarfing the huge flame, Jak heard Keira come up the stairs, and felt her hands slip over his shoulders, she too was amazed, neither could take their eyes off the stunning sight, the gold sunrise occured once every three hundred years, and it had appeared once before in their lifetimes, the very day they had defeated Gol and Maia, and stood at the pinnacle of their tower, looking out over the land, sheer beauty, Jak thought, then he looked at Keira, and knew she felt the same.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: this chapter was originally called, open the damn throttle, but I decided on the end a little different, I hope you like this version more than I predicted you would like the first draft, thank you to the people who reviewed my intro, and those who are reviewing my old story, it's nice to have fans.


	3. Chapter 2: Assault

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: welcome again, Ihope you liked chapter 1, and again thanks to my reviewers, Helenilia, Goshasha, and the other guy who seems to know me. Anyway, no point stalling for thinking time anymore, on with the show.

CHAPTER 2: ASSAULT

The high rise hellcat landing pads on top of the port pillars had seen many wars, including the great metal-pede stampede when Damas was still in charge, the attack when the walls were still being constructed, and the last skirmish between the allied metal-head and KG death bots, and the freedom league. Many wars, many deaths, and many victories for Haven. The people saw them as idols of freedom, like freedom tower, but much older, more outstanding, more trustworthy.

The huge hulking transport chuttered barely above the sheild wall, fire spouting from it's side. It swerved towards the east tower, setting itself down as the hose-toting guards scurried up to the ship and sprayed it within an inch of it's seal, the seems of the metal almost bursting with the force of the power water. Jak, Keira, Torn, the precursors, and a host of bedraggled racers staggered out of the smoking wreck and spluttered. Keira leaning on the side of the wall and coughing violently.

Maealan was standing by the railing, staring at the destruction, Karena was over by Keira and Ashelin, who were both pretty out of it, helping them out. Jak limped over to him. "Jak." He said. "What the hell happened here? Creatures?"

"Yep." He replied. "Torn shot a hole through the mountain just as the monsters broke through, they had dark ragles that followed us all the way back, but thankfully the wall turrets shot them down as we got close." He spluttered and bent onto the metal rail, throwing up over the side, then spun as he heard Daxter's voice. The cynical sudden-headache whine of his high pitched voice cutting through Jak's pained head, he was obviously oblivious to the annoyance of his friend. And hopped to the two angry warriors, hands on hips.

"Jesus christ Jak! I leave you for a week and you get yourself half killed, that does it, since you obviously can't survive without me, I'm moving back in to take care of you." He leapt up onto Jak's shoulder and tried to look nonchalant. He couldn't pull it off with his tell-tale liers face, Jak saw through him easily.

"Let me take a shot in the dark; Tess threw you out didn't she?"

"WHAT? That's preposterous, the very ide..." He trailed off and saw Jak's dark look. "Yeah she chucked me. She found out from an anonymous stool that I've been making up some stories. Maealan shuffled his feet and looked sideways.

"Great, now I gotta sort that out too, I'll be with you in a minute, take a number and sit down. And what's your problem?" He turned to Maealan, who was looking very impatient. And was glad to see the small ottsel waltz off to find his huffy wife.

"Jak, I know something you may want to find out, come with me." He turned Jak into a door sticking out of the floor and descended out of earshot. Jak sensed bad news coming on.

"Look, while I was with the light army, I learnt some of their tricks to sense when the creatures are planning an attack. There's a knack to it, how to see when they're simply moving troops to a place to distract you, I think that's what they were doing in the volcano. When you got in, did you see any signs of dark eco blasts on the walls?" He was urgent, making Jak stand back from his face as he leaned forward.

"No, not one, the walls were exactly the same as the last time I went in. Still flaky and covered in lava." This was true, Jak could see nothing on the walls, not even streaming creatures.

"That's bad, if the monsters had been there for as long as we think they were they would have created some major blasts during interior fights, either they weren't really there, or there were none with guns." He shivered as he became more stuck to his unknown theory." And the grouind, did it look trampled?"

I dunno, I was concentrating on driving, but I guess by the resistance I got from the ground it must have been quite rocky, so it wouldn't have been trampled down too much." Jak was lying, he always noticed everything about enemy turf in case he ever needed to go back there, the ground looked like it had been flattened.

"That's good, if my theory is right then would have been completely crushed because of a demon moving around. One more question, were there any pool creatures in the horde?"

"Not one, I did find that strange, cos they evolved in volcanos didn't they?"

"Yes, but there were none there because they would need them for an assault here." Jak went white, resembling Seem. "And they sent all the tiger creatures and tortured creatures there because they wouldn't be needed for a sea battle."

Jak didn't even wait for another reason, he rushed back up the stairs to tell Torn, but didn't make it. A great tremour shook the stairwell, and Jak tumbled backwards down the steps, knocking Maealan down first.

After many crashes into walls and stairs the two finally reached the bottom, and kissed sweet granite. Jak didn't waste any time again, getting back up while his friend was still writhing on the ground. The earthquakes were still going, waves thrashed around the port, washing over the boats and upending several. The vibrations were coming from underneath the water, not a deep, pulsing throb as most ususally associated with quakes, but a constant loud beating noise, like an animal thrashing in it's cage.

Already guards were arriving left right and center, helping civilians to shelters and attaching stabalisers to the ground, unfortunately the source was in the water, and no equipment could be carted out to the middle.

Not that it would have made any difference.

A geyser of water shot up from the port, cascading down on the panicking people. And where the water was, stood a huge demon, a great monstrous creature standing only up to his belly in the 100 foot deep water. small pool creatures with mutated digging mandibles shot up around the beast, but were immidiately shot out of the sky by guards by the water's edge. The demon found it's bearings in the different pressure atmosphere very quickly, usually an animal would get at least a minor bends feeling, but it had nothing.

It threw out it's arm, crashing down into one of the bridges between the two towers, snapping it in half in two blows. He then fixed his attention on Jak, they say size is stupidity, they're wrong, this creature was intelligent, far more the any metal-head or dark maker, he recognised the threat of Jak. He swung his massive fist in the directon of the hero. Jak waited, and waited, then at the last second he spun out of the way, in mid roll changing into Light and spinning away across the water. Trying to land on one of the wobbling ships that were still above water.

He spun and weaved between the harpoons that were flying towards the creature from the side, then swerved back onto course with one of the surviving boats, he landed and rolled, the momentum almost throwing him off the edge. He got up shakily and transformed back to normal, he shot a short range flare into the air, hoping Torn saw it from the top of the tower, obviously he had, as six hellcats lifted from the unseen top and flew towards him, carrying a heavy gun. Heavy guns were used by the baron during the start of the war when patrols regularly journeyed out of the city to defeat nearby metal-pede nests, but after Kor arrived and Jasen's chapter was lost he abolished the idea.

The gun was set down gently on the deck, Jak was glad to see it, a huge rocket launcher, the same used to fire heat seeking misslies when the KG were still in control of the industrial section. He climbed into the seat and spun it toward the beast, who was a bit tied up pulling spikes from the harpoons out of it's flesh, the piked ends ripping it's skin clean off in some places, but the massive beast barely seemed to notice, just turning into the fire again, but thankfully, to Jak's delight, several harpoons hit one of it's eyes, sending it writhing and thrashing about in the water.

Jak smiled, and aimed up the crosshair on the thing's head, and sequeezed the trigger six times, the fired rockets speeding towards the bulk with immeasurable speed. But the demon's sophistocated hearing picked up the sounds of the misslies being fired, and spun around faster than the eye can follow, crushing the napalm laced rockets in it's hand with almost no effort, but the soldiers bearing harpoons took this oppurtunity to fire, sending thier loads out at the turned back of the thing. Almost thirty hit the spine of the creature simultaneously, making it arch it's back and roar in pain, almost falling head first into the water, but it saved itself and stood gingerly back up, it's eye and back added with the numerous injuries all over it's body slowing it down, giving Jak a chance to fire again, he threw down the manual firing range, and pulled the lever that set off an uncontrollable rapid fire sending all the missiles out without due regard at a specified destination. Nothing had ever been attempted by anyone except by the KG bots, who were expendable, as the gun tended to blow up afterwards.

All the rockets spun out of the barrel towards the screaming beast. And Jak leapt out of the seat, just in time as the chemical reaction of the fire coming out of the rocket's back inside the barrel setting fire to the fuel in the tank. He spun around and stared at the spinning missiles, which were arcing their fast way towards the demon. But they never made it there, the thing snapped back to attention, it's former pain forgotten, it's entire focus on the twelve rockets, it expanded a massive sheild from a pod on it's chest, the bombs spattered on the shiny surface, causing no damage on the dark eco force-feild.

All firing stopped, nothing could get through. The creature just stood there, breathing heavily at it's effort, and it spoke.

_I am Jaenas, lord of the demon brood. I deliver a message from our illustrious masters. _He looked directly at Jak on his damaged ship. _I am here to tell you, to leave, to take your population, and leave, you cannot stand against the fleet when they come, but we can. Our masters will use their forces to defeat the dark fleet, you cannot do anything but interfere, leave."_

"We refuse to leave, we have survived the dark makers before, you masters, however, have not."

_"But we have, the eco creatures are all connected, we can feel each other thoughts, sharing tacticts and information. Our brothers on other planets are fighting the dark makers as we speak, I can feel their pain as they die, and their war cries as they are victorious, one outnumbers the other."_

By now some others had managed to be taken to the boat, which was getting pretty crowded. Keira jumped off the ramp and stood beside Jak. He looked into the eyes of the creature, searching for the lie he knew was there, he found nothing. Then he noticed the ship, the great bomb ship planned for such occasions, floating almost directly above the demon, ready to drop.

"You must tell us how you think to defeat us once the dark makers are dead." Jak was stalling for time, but also trying for information, the demons were smart, but not that smart.

_"You willnot destroy us, the ships contain many hundreds of thousands of prisoners, those who have been separted will soon join us in our war."_

The thing seemed to be sinking very slowly back into the water, metre by metre, down to the tunnel it had dug. Jak needed it to stay for another five seconds. Just five seconds. "What about the light army, they won't give up without a fight." This seemed to strike a note, the beast stopped sinking and raised itself back to it's full height.

_"The light ones cannot defeat us, we are superior, we are the great dark, we are power.Nothing has ever stood against us save the Eldar, and even they are gone now" _That was it, above him the bomb ship released his load onto the skull of the creature, he looked up and the bomb dropping toward him, and roared, trying to sink back down as fast as possible. In the last miliseconds Jak contemplated his last comment, the Eldar, who were they, the precursor leader had mentioned them like gods, yet he had never heard of them. He had no longer to think, as the pure semtex hit the head of the monster. The moster was still trying to escape.

Too late.

A blast.

A light.

Silence.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: I think that was good, but you may have a different view, if you do, or simply want to say something,then please review. It took a long time to do this, so i hope you all appreciate this, it's not easy juggling school, this, and learning Italian all at the same time, I hope some of you understand that, and find it in your cold tin chests to review.


	4. Chapter 3: A new enemy

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: hello one and all, I dearly apologise for the length of my last chapter and I assure you this one will be longer. I got another review thank god, and will the rest of you please tell me what you think just like this guy, I need some self esteem here people, I review every story I read, and I know you're out there, I can see you on the hit count.

CHAPTER 3: ANOTHER ENEMY

The flaming wreck of the port was all that was left after the ferocious attack by the demon, the bomb itself had knocked out several of the security and maintenance systems in the shield walls around the water. Every one of the boats motors had been short-circuited by the blast. And those who were on what was now being called the "gunship", had been stranded for several hours until a team could be sent out, unfortunately these included Maealan, Torn, Ashelin, Keira, and Jak, who were the only people qualified to sort out such a mess, the smaller commanders had made a real mess of it. Leaving fires burning next to eco tankers, concentrating on themselves first before the helpless civilians trapped on the islands where the bridges had been destroyed, and worst of all, making their first priority clearing what was left of the demon out of the water.

Jak and Keira strode into the room at the top of the freedom tower, looking around at the familiar faces, there was Sig, Torn, Ashelin, the young man who had taken over Illian, the king of Shassa, and other leaders from countries in the alliance. The meeting had been called to discuss a serious threat to the peace, but not even Jak knew what it was.

Torn was first to speak, as commander of the armies he was higher ranking than kings in a time of war. "Well ladies, gentlemen and others. I know none of you know why you're here so I'll tell you. We've received word from spies in Durancas city that their armies are mobilising, readying for war. Six thousand terror troopers marched onto a cruiser at three o'clock this morning, heading for Shorrelle, at 4;:05, we lost contact with Shorrelle city, nothing but static for hours now."

"So you think Durancas will rise up?" Said the prime minister of Morien, which was Shorrelle's closest neighbour, though the two had never got on well.

"We think exactly that, and much more. Durancas has always been an outsider working for money and eco, and whatever else they could get their grubby little hands on, we believe they may have been contracted by Gol and Maia."

Jak took this opportunity to speak, sitting down in a comfy swirl chair. "I don't think the twins would be that interested in that sort of thing, even when they used lurkers as labour they still hated doing it, since the lurkers were good at heart, but easily seduced to evil. They may have something else up their sleeve."

The large leader of Damas stood up, as one of Haven's closest allies, he was ready to stand for his king. "I think Lord Jak is right." He boomed, his huge voice making most of the world leaders jump. "From what I've heard of these characters, they sem to hate humans, I don't think they would be willing to even see them without some urge to rip the men to shreds."

All this time the man who really mattered, the king of Nissen had been sitting quietly, mulling over all the possible options. Nissen was one of the most powerful countries in the alliance, with an army of over 3, 000, 000, and almost 200, 000 Unken riders( A kind of ice-bear) his army was never invaded by any country, not the marauders, not the metal-heads, and none of the other leaders were on the same level as his tactical mind except Jak. He spoke in a small but intimidating voice, that somehow drew everyone's attention to him, turning heads all round.

"I think I may have an idea, your soldiers say they saw terror troopers leave Durancas, six thousand of them, yet our own sources say that they only had three in reserve, how did they double their numbers in less than a week, it takes days to inject the yellow eco that creates terror troopers."

"That is odd, perhaps we are looking at some other plot, not even illustrated by Durancas." That was the Damas leader again. Stroking his goatee that looked suspiciously like Jak's and strangely fake.

I don't think it was even Durancas we saw leaving, from the old texts we know that all creatures of jungle creature and above have the ability to shape shift, maybe Durancas fell, and we are now seeing an attack by Gol and Maia."

Jak spoke again, talking more to Sig, the king of Nissen, and the Damas leader than to the other, weaker leaders. "I don't think so, Gol and Maia don't go in for all that covert stuff, they barely kept it up with just themselves, they couldn't do it with six thousand men. We also know that dark makers can change too, because of the dark eco exposure." The room lit up with frantic whispers and gasps, as the few present figured out what he was implying.

"But the ship was destroyed long ago" Said the Chairen leader, trying to catch the attention of the four main kings and leaders.

"Not all of it, Jak here says that part of it may have got down safely." Sig finally entered into the conversation, and no one was gonna interrupt this mountain of a man.

The room was silent, no one had been told of the surviving ship, and they all remembered the ship, it's dark, cold stare at them from space, the destruction it reigned on each of their countries, and the animals, the hated, murderous animals that descended from the ship, pillaging and burning across the land, they said Chairen palace was a beauty to look at before the attack, now it was smoking rubble.

Jak stood up, he had heard all he needed to hear, he signalled that the meeting was over, no one spoke a word as the group split up, they were all preoccupied with planning the defence of their land, and panicking in intense frantic madness. Jak watched the shivering leaders go and chuckled, he was barely fazed by the news, he had faced every scary thing in the entire universe for years, and never been nervous, unlike Torn, who had almost collapsed into a seizure on the floor, hyperventilating and bulging eyes all rolled up in a ball.

Jak yanked him up off the metal floor and tried to console him, the commander eventually pulled himself together and tried to calm down.

"So what's the plan Jak?" He asked the surprisingly steady king.

Jak smiled at the commander, amused by his sudden outburst of fear. "There's nothing to worry about Torn, we've got the precursors on hand this time, they can summon a 'cursor fleet to counteract the dark makers long before they reach here." Torn finally got the gist, and relaxed, he then, after a moment to recover, walked off the platform and into the power elevator.

As soon as he was gone Jak dropped the smile. He turned to Keira, who was loking sceptical. "Is there really a chance of a precursor fleet?"

"Not one bit we're totally screwed." He replied, and Keira just turned and walked away to the 'vator, pushing the button for the ground floor and barely letting Jak through before the steel doors shut. He understood how angry she was at lying to almost the entire planet through Torn, but she didn't have to get that mad inside the metal box, she almost broke something.

Riding into the square at the bottom of the tower on and oversized leaper lizard was Daxter, looking very pleased with himself and flaunting his pride to every 'commoner' he passed. He approached Jak, barely in control of his mount, and put on his best smug face.

"Guess what Jak." He said, blowing on his fingernails and cleaning nonexistent dirt from under them. "I just saw Tess, she wanted me back after all, and I didn't need any help from you. Orange Lightening makes his own life, he doesn't need any help from lowly peasants, he is all powerful with ladies." Jak couldn't help sniggering behind his hand and had to turn away.

He had called Tess earlier and told her to get back together with Daxter, making up some reason or other for his behaviour, and he had told her not to tell Dax it was him. Now Daxter stopped his monologue and looked at the two giggling elves in front of him, and the truth, or at least part of it, dawned on him.

"Hey, you didn't by any chance call her did you?"

Jak's silence was enough.

"Damnit Jak can't you let me do something for myself for once?"

"But then you'd just screw it up, it's much better if I do it for you, besides, this way you get Tess without doing any work."

Daxter thought, weighing up his two favourite things, pride, or laziness, in the end laziness won out and he stamped his foot. Climbing back onto his leaper and kicking it's sides, making the lizard speed off towards his new house, with him swaying precariously on the back.

Jak and Keira also decided it was time to leave, the locals didn't take kindly to seeing their king and queen not qorking in a time of war. They made their own way to the Naughty Ottsel where Sig, Maealan, Karena, and a few other familiar faces were seated, including the precursors, slumped out on the counter with several bottles of something beside them.

Jak took a seat in front of the bar, and knocked the surfer precursor off the table to make way for a long line of booze, Keira sat beside them and swept the other two off as well, making a large pile of orange fur behind the counter, they still didn't wake up.

"Hey Jak. "Called an annoying voice behind him, and Jak winced and braced himself for another conversation with the most annoying man on the planet, Jinx. "How you doin' Jakey boy? No new adventures started without me I hope."

"Hello Jinx." Said Keira drily, not looking at the demolition expert.

"Hey Keira." He passed over her, this was surprising because he usually was all over her, he instead turned to Jak and paid close attention to what kind of mood he was in

"Jak, I've been wanting to ask you somethin'. It's quite delicate so we might like to talk somewhere private." Jak shook his head. "Very well then, it's about this new law that says no fireworks in large built p areas such as the slums of new Haven district, that's only for the normal people right?"

Jak looked threateningly at him, not even daring himself to speak as there were children in the small cavers in the walls.

"Are you suggesting to me, that I should let you use highly dangerous explosives, in a small enclosed space, with civilians all around, during a war where we would like to remain anonymous?"

"Ummm, yeah, that's about the gist of it."

Jak stopped breathing for a second, then exhaled. "Yeah alright then." As soon as the words were out of his mouth Jinx pulled a roll of firecrackers out from somewhere under the chair and sped out of the door to a group of grinning cohorts of his, who all ran round the corner out of sight, lighting fireworks as they went.

Jak smiled and looked away. He didn't have time to enjoy the trick he had just paid on Jinx, knowing he would be arrested at any minute, because a deep rumbling in the ground suddenly shook the entire barhouse , making chairs and bottles topple left right and centre, Jak struggled out from under and overturned stool and rushed out of the bar, looking for the cause of the commotion, he didn't have far to look.

The walls seemed to be crumbling, falling apart at the seems and cracking up, something on the other side was making it break up. He could just see the tip of a snake-like head on a long neck poking over the top, a terror former, the same thing jak fought against during his battle with Errol, it seemed he was wrong, one had been woken up b the crash, and it wasn't happy.

The thing finally broke through the solid stone wall, scattering boulders the size of houses everywhere, and letting a tide of smaller creatures swarm in from the other side. The little dark makers killed anything in their way, the tiny amount of guards who had managed to organize them selves were no match, and the rest were wiped out just as quickly.

Jak and some others like Maealan and Eiun had pulled them selves together in time to help, they pulled weapons from nowhere and started blasting, helping struggling guards as the went, the creatures were coming from the left side of the port, and had already spread over most of the rebuilt bridges in a matter of seconds, Jak figured out what to do and ran to one side of one of the bridges , grabbing the peace maker off his back and letting rip, the blue-white balls of energy tearing into the dark makers bodies and instantly disintegrating them.

Maealan ran to the other bridge a little slower, and had a hard time in close combat with the things, but eventually sorted the closer ones out, and turned his attention to keeping the further away ones from reaching the end. Karena just stood there, in awe of the massive terror former, it truly was magnificent, in a destroy your home and house kind of way. The huge powerful legs of the machine came crashing down on the concrete right in front of the entrance to the gardens, where a small group of guards shot unsuccessfully at the giant before them, it simply trod on them with one foot, bringing instant death.

By now some people up at the tower had realised what to do, and had sent down the racers, Jak had brought it down in a sand shark, so they thought it would work again, unfortunately no one in the entire armada of cars was as good as Jak, so most of the were crushed or destroyed by the spinning weapons sent down from the underside of the beast. The flame-red cars with go-faster stripes were no match for the army of smaller black monsters that sprang from above onto their vehicles.

Jak saw the only way, a series of spikes on the leg, leading up and up into the deep inside of the main body. A sort of staircase to the control centre, but he couldn't see a way to it, the thing was now lifting it's feet more regularly, as it's legs recovered from years of being dormant in the ship, it sped up, now reaching the very arch of the gardens, and crashing right into it, destroying the last piece of evidence that the metal-heads had ever been there.

But hope was at hand, round the corner from the other side of the canal from the terror former, was a lone, but powerful, bomb bot. Wedged against the side in case fell in the water, the bot made it's way round the bend in the river, and onto the side where most of the machine's legs were, going steadily towards to back leg, Hoping the explosion would knock the machine off balance, and it would topple, where it could be easily destroyed, and thankfully, it hadn't seemed to notice the walking bomb coming towards it. The bot edged closer and closer, it was now only metres away from the limb it was aiming for, only one more step…

But it never made it.

The terror former had spotted it long ago, it's intended leg rose up high, and the bot didn't know what to do, obviously the one controlling it was inexperienced, it just stood there, waiting for it's doom, and it came swiftly, the huge bulk of the former's foot coming crashing down on the bot, the blast being muffled by the grippers, and doing no damage at all to the dark machine. If the thing couls have laughed, then it would have then.

Jak lost hope then, falling to his knees and despairing for the first time since his father died, their last hope was gone, and there was no one else to take up the cause. After all the hardship, all the war, they were to be brought down, finally.

At least, that was what went through his mind.

There was an explosion. Someone chanting in the precursor tongue. Then light.

The warriors had come.

Light beings reigned down on the terror former, from no where in the sky they fell, landing with precision on the vital weak points of the machine. And using their light powered swords to penetrate the hard armour. Dark lightning spread across the body as the circuits inside were shut down one by one.

On the bridges too the came, smashing the smaller creatures into eco floating on the wind with nothing but their arms. Three dark makers came at a warrior at once, and he just stood the, drawing his sword and waiting, waiting for them to come to him, he wasn't disappointed. The three charged at once, claws lengthened and teeth bared, but he leapt up, flying at least two metres in the air, and landed behind the thrashing creatures, who had become tangled in each other. He jumped at the nearest one, dancing between it's talons and driving his blade up through the beat's chest, making it shatter into nothing, then he turned his attention to the other two, putting his hand on one of their heads and using it to propel himself over it and stab it through the back in mid-air. The third took one look at his fallen comrades and decided there would be no surrender, it charged at the warrior, drawing it's own rusted, dark eco coated dagger, but it made no difference, the light eco powered soldier side stepped and let the creatures momentum carry it past him, then he brought his sword down on the onyx monster's head, and shattered it.

Jak could see the warriors on the terror former begin to gain the upper hand, the huge head firing lazers at them becoming overwhelmed by the sheer numbers, more and more were creeping up it's neck to the control pit, the dark maker inside couldn't keep up with the amount of targets, a few went flying off the side, blown off by the gun, but three more took each of their places. Finally one made it up, cracking the glass on the head the making the creature inside look up, to see it's death coming towards it, in the shape of a sword.

The former fell fast after that, the small number of dark makers inside it being destroyed easily. Soon it came down in the water of the port, tumbling backwards into the water from all the way at the entrance to the gardens. Jak stared around at the destruction, pipes that had been mended just days ago had been blown open again, the fires from the demon's attack had been re-lit, and civilian's dead bodies lay crumpled on the ground, war had once again reared it's ugly head upon innocent people. But the city was safe, for now.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well there we are, I'm slowly but surely eliminating the main threats to Haven's safety, just one to go now, but I'm will play this out for some time, stay tuned for lots of chapters filled with a lot of battle.


	5. Chapter 4: constellation

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: still no more reviews, I'm surprised at you, I always make it a point to review every story I read, as some of you may know, and I find it increasingly annoying when people don't return the favour, but thank you to those who have reviewed, and put me on their favourites list and alerts, it's good to know someone enjoys my work, so for those of you out there that do love the reading of my story, here's another chapter.

CHAPTER 4: CONSTELLATION

It was night. The waves lapped over the shoreline of Spargus city, and the people slept peacefully under the dark blanket of the black sky.

The three precursors stood atop the huge beacon above the palace, staring at the night sky. And wondering, the stars twinkled back at them, as if in acknowledgment of the greatness the was before them. But the ottsels had more on their minds, they had noticed something lately, something different in the stars, a new set of suns, seemingly blazing far away in some unknown system, the common folk had taken this lightly, simply saying that maybe a star had died and was now no longer blocking their planet's view of the system, but the precursors knew different.

They could tell from the signs, the tell-tale pointers that told them what the new constellation really was, and for the first time since their own home planet was overrun by dark makers, they felt fear, fear, of the dark fleet.

Darkness also fell on Haven, Jak was once again standing on the top of the hellcat pad, staring at the sky with the same intensity as the precursors. Alone with his thoughts, he too recognised the fleet in the stars, and new set of suns does not appear at every whim, especially not one in the shape of a snake, it's forked tongue wrapped around many planets and systems, the darkness was coming, and the planet could no longer hold off the tide.

And in the huge towering citadel on the horizon, two others also saw the threat rushing towards them, and they were the only ones who did not flinch, instead welcoming the black fleet, to it's doom.

Jak crept through the dense jungle, sounds of strange and foreign animals echoed throughout the trees, sounding calls to each other that an intruder was passing through their territory, not that they could do anything about it. Behind him three other came too, Keira, Maealan, and Karena. He was on his way to somewhere he had left something, years ago, before the great rift and the arrival of the metal-heads.

Above them the peaks of Mt. Precursor rose high over the trees, darkening the world for those who lived in it's shadow, he alone knew the dark secret this mountain housed, he alone could find it.

He crawled along the ground, avoiding the lizards and insects that scurried beside him, while Keira walked aloft, jumping back each time a centipede went within a metre of her, the two behind her shook their heads and just walked on, stamping the bugs into the earth as they went.

Jak reached the side of the mountain, where the ground suddenly sloped almost vertically upwards, and stopped.

"This is the entrance point, the only way in is straight through the rock." He said, more trying to reassure himself that it was the only possible passage than explaining it to his companions, who had gone through maps of the area countless times.

"You know, it might help if you were to tell us why we're here instead of leading us on a wild goose chase." Grumbled Maealan.

"As I said before, if I told you where we were going you'd turn round and walk into a tree to make sure you heard properly, then run straight home." Far from helping Maealan, this only made him feel worse, but he stopped arguing and got out the digging gear he had been instructed to bring.

He stepped up to the sheer cliff and pointed his jack-hammer to the rock, staring up the tool and jamming it into the stone wall, sending pieces of rock flying off.

It could see them through the trees, barely moving it dropped down to the ground silently, not even Jak's trained ears heard the soft pad of it's landing. It tip-toed past leaves and bushes, circling the trio with hunting precision, stalking them as they dug through the cliff, almost through, Maealan said something, but it's warped hearing couldn't decipher the words.

It crept closer, only metres away it reached out it's hand to grab Keira's hair, only inches away it's breathing quickened, the excitement of a kill making it's pulse heighten, it's heart beat faster, and it could almost taste the blood running down his throat.

By now Keira had heard the breathing in her ear, and spun round on the spot, and screamed, the monsters claws reaching up above her, mouth pulled back in an endless silent roar. And then she noticed the large blade protruding from it's chest, shining bluish-white, then Jak's head and shoulders rose above the beasts, smiling and dropping the jungle creature off his sword.

He chuckled at the girl's puzzled look. "What's the problem?" He said, still putting on his most patronising face. She gave him a quick cuff and turned back to Maealan, who, by the sound of the hollow echoes coming from the rock, was nearly through.

The wall of the cliff crumbled onto the ground and through the hole he had made, the shadows inside being enlightened for the first time since Jak first came here when he was twelve.

Karena stepped through first, but Jak stopped her and walked past, none of them objected as it was obvious he knew his way and they didn't.

Around them there was a faint glow, and here and there precursor metal poked out from behind the stone, shining with some of it's earlier grandeur, Jak made his fast way down endless corridors and stairways, with the other barely keeping up, he seemed to be picking up speed, as if sensing some urgency to get where he was going. He finally stopped round a corner and those behind him ran into his back, oofing as they fell to the ground.

Jak said two simple words. "We've arrived." Then walked up to what looked like an ordinary wall, standing by it and closing his eyes, waiting for something to happen, Maealan paced up and down while Karena fidgeted, they both were quite in tune with eco since their experiences in the light eco city, and they could feel the eco writhing within the walls, angry eco, infuriated at it's imprisonment and frustrated by it's own inability to do anything about it. The eco in there was highly evolved, almost as much as the eco creatures, and ten times as powerful.

Jak finally moved after what seemed like hours of staring at the wall, a low grating sound split the long silence, an deep, mournful howl as rock scraped on rock, and the wall Jak had been looking at began to crack down the middle, a shining outline appeared on the rock face, letters that were not of the world or of the precursors.

Jak smiled peacefully as he recognised his surroundings, the huge statues all around the majestic hall they were entering. The other three were enraptured by the monumental structure, it stretched high into the mountain, that was for sure, as the could see for hundred of thousands of feet above, and a rounded cone shape settled at the top, signifying the presence of the peak of the mountain.

Rows upon rows of mirrors with unknown purposes spiralled up inside the structure, reaching to the highest point and even inside the far off cone at the peak.

Jak didn't even stop to look at the architecture, instead walking on into the centre, where a great monument was erected, standing at least a hundred metres tall and over a thousand wide. He was dwarfed by the memorial, a small figure standing by the side of a tomb, as that was obviously what it was, the others could see the shape of a lying man on the top, a sword in his hand, it was just a statue of course, the true body would be inside, even Jak was surprised at this, he didn't remember it being there before. Nevertheless, he seemed to find what he was looking for, going round the side and grinning at what he saw, Keira looked round nervously, and gasped. He was standing beside the largest eco crystal she had ever seen, at least two metres tall and glowing like it had just been formed.

"Jak….Is this what you left behind?" Said Karena, unable to take her eyes off the beauty before her.

"Yes." He said simply, stroking the gem like an old friend.

Without another word he calmly signalled for them to back away, spreading his feet and readying himself, he held the crystal with both hands, closing his eyes and letting light eco slowly creep up his body, engulfing his face so that it was no longer visible, both gem and man were blocked out by the sheer light emanating from them both, pure white light streaming from the top of the crystal, shooting across the one of the mirrors and reflecting to another, the beam being strengthened by the refraction of the light. It spun around off the mounted shining plates going higher and higher, the now tiny figures below watched in awe as it finally burst through the top, melting the cone halfway down with the heat, even Jak stopped to watch this spectacle, no longer needing to help power the gem.

Millions of miles away, at the barrier to space, the light broke through the atmosphere, and just kept going.

A warning.

A signal.

A message.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: a bit short for my liking but I couldn't have padded it out more, let me just say now that this story will eventually become a warhammer crossover in it's sequel, so any fans out there will like the ending.

Also the small matter of the countries came up, if any of you have any ideas or would like to just get in touch with ND, then the easiest way is to contact the author called _the silver badger _though if you wanna chat with more Jak fans, go to google, search Jak4, and one of the first things that will come up will be new Jak3 movie, click it and it'll take you to a forum page, there's loads of people there that are also Jak fanatics, including someone who worked there and was a designer on jakx, I think she said she made up Ashelin's new outfit, anyway, you can give her ideas and she'll pass them on to her superiors, and possibly they'll be integrated to jak5, which is under construction as we speak, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and my info, and that you'll all stick around for the next one, bye!


	6. Chapter 5: councilling

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well we're back again, sorry for how my last chapter's length was but the computer I'm typing on makes it look bigger than it is on the site, anyway, thank you for your reviews, yes as I said before Jak5 is under construction, see my last chapter for full details of how to get in touch with ND, although an author on this site called the silver badger does also work for them so you could just talk to her instead, but now, on with chapter 5.

CHAPTER 5: COUNCILLING

Fire rose from over the hills, in the direction of Shorrelle city, as the huge spluttering transport rose and fell over the land of Shorrelle the occupants could already see the smouldering remains of the county's capital. After the attack of the dark makers the council decided, independently, that it would be generous to go help any survivors, not that they had found any yet that is.

Jak set the transport down inside a mostly stable building that was almost untouched by dark eco, which now ran in the city's canal instead of water. Stepping out of the dark innards of the damaged cruiser came Jasen, Karena, Maealan, three members of the council, Jak, Keira, and Sig, as a representative of Spargus and the wasteland lurkers.

All around them was desolation, fires that had been burning for days under the power of dark eco still raged strong, dead lay on the ground, only now beginning to decompose and decay. And worse of all, there was the ship, the great dark maker ship, lying dead in the middle of the city, obviously crushing the palace beneath it, along with countless lives.

Jak had come prepared for this, reaching back into the ship he drew out a bag, simple, yet he handled it carefully, like a mother holding a child. He slipped it gingerly onto his back and tip-toed out of the building to the burning wreck below.

Keira and the others closely followed him, staying near in case there were any remaining dark makers, but they encountered no resistance, obviously the monsters had all left either to fight in Haven or when they heard of their comrade's failure in the city.

Stalking through the rubble and debris the crew quickly found numbers uncounted of dead in the street, and also a few dead dark makers that were killed in the defence of Shorrelle.

The transport had already been around most of the other cities, but this was the worst, thousands of dead were dragged through pools of blood in what looked like a mass grave simply for show. The faces of the people looked almost still alive, some of their faces pulled back in silent screams of terror, others calm, as if they had been attacked fro behind, and never saw their killers.

It was a pure bloodbath, but all the council members had to say was.

"The area seems to be secure, send out a scout party and bring back any living."

The sheer contempt for human life angered Jak to the very depths of his split soul, both dark and light sides flaring in anger at the uncaring democrat. He spun and grabbed the man by the neck, and shoved him up against a wall, slightly reverting to Dark for extra scare factor, "Now listen here," he shouted, the warped effect of his voice reverberating round the clearing, "I am the highest in line here, meaning I am in charge, and what I say goes, and I say you go, get it?"

The man barely shivered, he just looked into Jak's eyes and smiled, the smug grin annoying Jak more than anything else, he spoke in a slimy voice that reminded everyone of Veger in a way that sent ice down their backs. "I believe the laws of the second declaration of the alliance any presiding council member is able to remove certain powers from the monarch if it is in order to preserve the state and city." He finished with a sly look.

Jak growled and very ungracefully set the man down; almost breaking the man's humourous in the process. He walked away from the awkward scene towards the huge structure rising above the city's buildings.

The group set off towards the ship, not letting their guard down for a second, knowing that an army of dark makers could be waiting around every corner and in every alleyway, just sitting and hoping that some poor unsuspecting men will try to take them on.

They made slow progress through the winding streets of Shorrelle City, always having to stop to look through the huge mounds of bodies for any survivors. Keira was getting increasingly distressed as she recognised people she once knew and loved.

The council member became increasingly infuriating, continually taunting Jak to try and make him threaten him, in order for the powers of the council to allow him to deduct more powers from the king. Fortunately Jak was held back by his friends, every time they could see the anger building they intervened, and through this they managed to get to the base of the ship without much outbursts, not much, but still some. By the end Jak had lost the power to strip rank, promote army-men, and even to knight warriors. He was having a very bad day.

The gargantuan structure of the dark maker ship loomed above them, dwarfing even Freedom Tower in comparison to the enormous supports of the ship.

Jak strode to the front of the 500 foot door and touched the dark, swirling surface. His mind was instantly transported inside the ship systems as it was before. He once again found himself inside the circuits of the robot walker, his hands replaced with huge claws, and his legs super-powered to the extent that they were able to catapult him at least six metres in the air. On the front of the machine was a power coup link containing the energy of his shield and weapons, though they had both been shut down somehow.

He stared ahead at the dark wall, the place seemed to be deserted; the doors blasted open with the force of the crash. All the bodies of the dead dark makers had been dragged to the wall and piled in a giant sacrificial pile, whoever had found this ship certainly hadn't liked the dark creatures. And had obviously survived whatever remaining force left alive, by the look of the work that had been done to repair the broken doors hinges.

Jak took several steps forward, and leapt of the edge of the platform he was standing on; turning left and right to look for any signs of recent activity. Seeing none, he decided to take the left passage, towards the centre of the ship.

After several hours of walking in the long hallways of the ship Jak finally came to something significant, namely, a large hole in the wall, leading to the outside onto a great square of the city. Obviously when it had landed the ship had crushed the palace, as Jak recognised the square as the one leading to the palace.

He told the robot that was his host to step out of the hole, and try to retrace the steps he had taken to get there, then eh sat back, relinquished his hold on the bot's circuits and returned to the outside.

It took the robot another hour to return to the group; in that time Jak explained his plan. He was going to tell the bot to find the pivotal spot in the ship's decks, and then detonate the bomb at the precise moment, thereby ending any significant threat.

The walker bot rolled up the group and without any hesitation, picked up the 90 kilos of pure semtex, keeping it exactly level and safe without any seemed effort, and carried it back the way it came. The twenty companions, and the council member with his constant guards, raced back to a safe position to make sure everything went according to plan.

An hour later, and sound shattered the silence, and trembling, ear-splitting sound that reverberated throughout the entire city, sending shockwaves of force to shatter every intact piece of glass in the vicinity, and probably waking every dead.

A fireball the size of the old palace rose up in the sky, temporarily blocking out the sun from view, plunging the team into not darkness, but a deep red light, the shininess of Jak's eyes showing up in the absence of UV rays.

He turned away from the explosion, and returned to the ship, simply saying nothing, as he always did when he was struggling to keep the Demon's bloodlust at bay in the midst of all that destruction. He did not make it into the ship though.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" He said to the guard down who's gun barrels he was staring. "Are you insane or something?"

The guard didn't answer, but turned to show the council member standing behind him, a thin smile across his face. "Oh come on Jak. Surely you realised what was going on? After all, the council has been seizing power from the royal court for months now."

Jak growled and attempted to call out to the others, but was stopped by what the elf continued to say.

"Do not say a word, or the first to be shot will be the little elf-friend of yours. Just wait for them to come, no matter what happens, and climb in here so they can't see the gun." Jak complied, staying absolutely still when he got in, a state of readiness that would hopefully show them that something was wrong.

The others rounded the corner talking, not even noticing the strange circumstances in front of them, so Jak's hopes were scuppered. Keira was that first to get in, and instantly was with a gun at her back and out of sight. The rest were captured too, no one daring to make a move in case someone got shot. Jak was cuffed, chained, tied, strapped, and many other things to keep him under control. The rest of the group wer simply chained, with small, steel chains designed originally to keep weak, malnourished prisoners under control. Using these on and individual such as Sig, turned out to be a big mistake, as he on many occasions attempted to escape, getting through six batches of chain until he was finally sedated.

As the carrier flew over haven Jak noticed several things different, 1: There were no guards at the entrances. 2: All the Hellcats that usually flew over the walls keeping a lookout had been brought to street level, where they looked more like a tyrannical weapon rather than a security measure. And 3: There were fire fights in the streets, between a force comprised mostly of Krimzon guard and surviving death bots, and another made up of civilians, who had probably got hold of from Torn, who could be seen sprinting through the Slums, firing as he went.

Jak wondered what could have brought about this madness, it was true, the council had got a bit too big for its boots, but they had never acted in this way before, not even Veger had dared open war.

The council member placed at the head of the ship told the pilot to set down in the former FL HQ.

"This is our stop." He said, a maniacal grin plastered on his face. "We'll be seeing to you ingrates later, but we have a city to conquer, it shouldn't be too hard, you FL were too lenient with the public, and now they're gone, and replaced with a better, brighter future."

Ashelin's eyes widened at this speech, the fires of remembrance lighting a new kind of hatred in her eyes. The council member smiled at this, as if he had known this would happen, the group looked questioningly at her. She was not often surprised.

Jak yanked the chains around his body and twisted to talk to her once the councillor had left. "What is it? Who is he?" Her eyes just looked downcast as she resigned herself to the truth.

"I knew when he said that sentence, it's the same thing my father said when he seized power from Damas. MY father always thought he was doing something good for the city, and after things started to fall apart, he began to take hallucinogens, making him believe that things were good in the city. It wasn't helped by Errol, who was happy to tell my father anything to make him happy, and to keep himself in power."

"I never told you before, I had a brother." Jak's Jaw dropped. "Yes, I didn't tell you because I, and everyone else, thought he was dead. He was sent on the last mission to the Metal Head Nest, he never returned. It's only recently that I discovered old documents portraying a big cover-up story. He had never been sent to the nest, he'd only been recorded as being there. Instead, my father had sent him to Durancas, in order to ensure that if he was beaten by the Underground, then he would have an heir. And as we know, Durancas was destroyed, and it's recorded that all the citizens fled."

Realisation flooded Jak's mind as he understood what the former Governor was trying to tell him. The council member, the one who had improsined them, was her brother, Vakor.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: well there we are, I can only apologise for how long it took me to write this, there is no excuse, except that I left the computer I was writing at for two weeks, and was unable to access it till I got back, if you want to complain then fine with me, anything to get reviews, of any kind. Now next time we will see the gang exiled, Haven controlled by Vakor, and many, many new things found out about the fleet coming, and the start of a J&D/Warhammer 40K crossover. And to any who wanted to come to the site I mentioned to see the person who worked for Naughty Dog Inc., don't bother, my friend recently died from leukaemia, and will therefore not be on any more. But if you want to come just to chat to other jak fans, then do so.


	7. Chapter 6: Crying death

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: phases into existence and throws dart at a picture of Tony Blair hello my not-so-loyal fans. This is gonna be a whopper in terms of information, this is the penultimate chapter to the end, so it's usually when the hole plan comes together into one big kaboom. Meaning, guess who the mystery star is, remember the constellation of stars that Jak saw, think it's dark makers? Think again, then take the answer you get and think again again.

CHAPTER 6: CRYING DEATH

Darkness fell on Haven. The cold blanket of night enveloped the captive population, momentarily washing away the pain of the day before. Jak and his friends slept in their cramped cell, bodies crushed up against each other in a futile attempt to ward off the inevitable frostbite.

Only Maealan remained awake, thinking. His past experiences had a habit of turning sour, the only time in his life that his luck had turned good, when he had friends, a family, love… But it was over, ended by the cruel madness of Vakor. The insane son of the baron had already ruined his life once, when he murdered his mother years back during an oil expedition in Chairen, and now he was doing it again.

Soft murmurings came from the cells around theirs. Maealan lent his head against the wall to listen to the conversations of the other prisoners, he could hear Torn talking to some lower general in the cell opposite, he had been placed apart from them due to his high risk of escape. He was discussing fleeing even this moment, plans each more absurd than the last erupted from his brain, when both of them knew none were possible.

A noise interrupted Maealan's train of thought, a soft but insistent roaring in the distance. He got up to move to the window, yanking the heavy links of chains to give him more slack. He grabbed the cold metal bars and stuck his head as far out as possible, scanning the horizon to look for the source. All he could identify was a cloud of dust far off in the distance, growing larger by the minute. Maealan recognised what it was, but not why, how, where, or who.

He stumbled back into the room to wake the others, shaking Jak into a grumbling wake and running found the group telling them to get to the other side, away from the wall.

The roaring grew louder, soon Jak's heightened senses could pick out the sound of a car, a powerful one too, it sounded clear and cut in his mind, through the chatter of the surrounding people he could hear the tell-tale signs of his old Javelin X motor, the same jittery piston motion, the same creak in the suspension as the car went over a hill, and more importantly, the smell of the sulphur fumes emanating from the exhaust pipe, he knew that. It was at maximum velocity, from the smell the car was pretty revved up, meaning as far as it was from the cell, it definitely wouldn't be able to stop in time.

"GET BACK!" He yelled to the others, forcing Keira, Maealan and Karena back to the opposite wall.

The revving of the Javelin grew to a ear-shattering scream as the car smashed it's way through six tonnes of steel, concrete and asphalt. The car's momentum was stopped by the crash, saving the group from being crushed, but there was no sign of anyone in it.

"Do you think it was remote controlled?" Gasped Keira through the dust.

"No. The Javelin was designed for manned driving, the certain complex circuitry prevents against that kind of thing. The driver must have jumped clear." Jak slowly edged towards the hole, motioning for the others to cover him if anything was out there, he had unfortunately forgotten that they had nothing to cover with.

He crept round the edge of the gaping hole, sniffing the air for signs of human scent, he isolated something. A familiar scent, mixed in with even more familiar ones. He tried to reason that the owner of the first scent was dead, he had been killed in Cafas on a mission. He continued to go round the wall, silent as a skilled stealth master.

"BOO!" Shouted a voice. Jak never flinched, but smiled, he stepped from his hiding place in the crevices a lunged out of sight from the group, they crept tentatively towards the hole, haring laughter and muffle speaking.

Suddenly Jak sprung from the outside, beaming a holding a companion, someone they all knew well, Kun.

"Surprised?" he chuckled. "You should be. I was myself when I realised I was still alive. But I am all the same." He smiled at the elve's gaping, standing there seeming completely fine despite being dead for some time. Jak on the other hand knew exactly what was gong on, he had known someone had reached the dark maker ship before him, someone powerful who had managed to mop up what was let of the dark makers inside, and Kun made perfect sense.

"How did you survive the attack of those Metal Heads in Cafas?" Keira said, rather open-mouthed herself.

Kun almost didn't answer, the car had wrecked his hearing pretty badly, he barely heard the question, but Jak pointed it out to her and she repeated it for him, slightly louder.

"I don't particularly know, I was dead, I'm sure of that, so something must have brought me back. After waking up I was in Shassa, so that's how I was in the ship."

None of them found this very helpful, but they sidelined their queries for the moment to welcome their companion back, all taking turns to hug or shake his hand. He was worn out by the end, almost collapsing as Sig unexpectedly hugged him, although it was preferable to the inevitable hand crushing that would have been the alternative.

Jak organised the group quietly, ignoring the blaring sirens and instead going to the wall, and using the cleared rubble to bombard the wall into Torn's cell, soon breaking through the six-inch-thick concrete and freeing the commander. Despite the obvious inclination to greet him, Jak instead rushed to the Javelin X and shouted for the rest to get in.

They all clambered over the small car and attempted to fit in the tiny back seat, they managed it…eventually. Keira clambered into the front seat with Jak, where he was revving the engine up after it's brief turn with high speed wall-crashing. She was seriously worried.

"Jak, where are we gonna go?" She asked him, trying to stop him from becoming immersed in the car's woes.

"How the hell should I know?" He yelled. "I'm not the one with all the answers, you always expect me to be clued in, all of you, but for once, I, don't, know!" He calmed down fast, realising what he had said, it was the first time he had shouted at her since before their wedding. "I'm sorry." He said, but she was already gone.

Vakor watched intently over Samos as he replaced broken parts of the old ruins in South Haven forest. He had kept Samos out of jail for this sole reason, he was he only one capable of fixing it, and unlike his father, Vakor knew the importance of seeing the stars and their threats before they arrived.

Samos himself, a very tired and weary old man by now, the longevity bestowed on him by his sage hood now finally wearing off, was almost done with the machine, though he was dreading it's completion, once he was done Vakor would have control of the stars and their secrets, he could prevent the Precursors from arriving, or even spark and interstellar war with another race. But nonetheless, he proceeded.

The guard beside him nudged him with his rifle, a constant reminder not to try any "funny stuff." He slotted the final bolt into the contraption, finishing the machine set off the automatic start, and the various patched parts began to fly around and hum.

Samos looked back to Vakor, his eyes questioning whether he should test it, Vakor nodded his approval. Samos put his monicled eye up to the telescope, swinging it round to search for the fleet, he was decimated by the truth.

There was no Dark Maker fleet, no huge ships coming towards them…or at least, not that was Dark Maker. There was instead a massive bundle of ships, they looked like huge pyramids cut onto slices of lemon, though they had nothing of a comical look about them, they had a foreboding sense, the sort of thing you expect to see in an action film, as the bad guy's ship.

Samos zoomed in on the side, looking for identifiable markings or insignias, his eyes widened.

He stumbled away from the telescope, half running, half jumping down the newly made staircase to the ground, he didn't bother with explanations, just rushed past Vakor, out the airlock, and through the city, screaming warnings to get out of the way as he ran. He made his way through the winding streets of the pedestrian district, up to the Library.

He burst through the double doors, not stopping the say hi to the librarian he was familiar with, not pausing to check in as usual. he rushed to the Ancient Writings section. The segment of the Library full of the books supposedly left behind by the precursors. He ripped a book from the shelves, streaming through the pages to the one he was looking for.

He breathed slowly, not daring to look at the page, but eventually he opened his eyes, looking down at the description. The book dropped from his fingers, hitting the floor with a dull thud, normally he would have been appalled at the treatment of such a book, but this time he didn't care, he could just stare, and stare, thinking things he had never thought before, of doom, and death.

He whispered something, barely audible by any standards, just four words:

"The Necrontyr are coming."

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: DUDES, YOU ARE GONNA BE FLIPPED BY THIS! The Necrontyr is Old language for Crying death, explaining the chapter title, and they are an Ancient Race lorded over by their gods, the C'Tan, meaning sun gods, aeons ago they decimated the universe, but as there was no life left for them to harvest, they went into a deep sleep, as their bodies had been transformed into metal by their gods, they survived the ages, now they're out, and they're pissed. Samos will explain the rest next chapter.

PS: I solely boycotted anything by CS4Kerries, a complete &£ who has been slagging off a former friend of mine, who has recently died, she has an insane idea that my friend faked her death over the internet (that was where I knew her only), lied that she worked for Naughty Dog, and then pretended to be someone else, she's been annoying me and spamming my computer ever since, I would ask you loyal readers to do the same, thank you.


	8. Chapter 7: loyal colonies

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: Hello peeps, welcome to another rollercoaster of despair misery, and a ball of Jakiness, (god I'm good) my friend horros says he's gonna rip out my hair if I say that again, so I will, god…I'm….good. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! THE PAIN!

That was unpleasant, well now, today I decided to extend this a bit, I was going to end with Jak and gang escaping, but now I'm taking a few chapters from my next book and moving them back, this one was just too small. Oops, wrong analogy, oh well, here we go.

CHAPTER 7: LOYAL COLONIES

The Javelin X sped over the muddy remnants of South Cafas, after numerous excursions by the Baron in the days of Old Haven, the south of the once great country became uninhabitable, driving many of the inhabitants south into Haven territories, they were not met with open arms.

Riding along the back of the car were most of what could only now be called "fugitives of a fugitive", escaping from the tyranny of the baron's son, and heading for a ferry that would take them to Spargus. Jak, Keira, Maealan, Kun, Torn and Ashelin sat in the cramped front, discussing plans of war, and cheese, (Torn was hungry) they were halfway to the ferry terminal already, and had encountered no resistance, at first everyone thought this was suspicious, but Jak was more inclined to think it had something to do with the bomb he had set up in the cell after leaving, the rest agreed.

Keira leaned over to speak to Jak. "Where are we going after Spargus? Sig won't want fugitives in his city causing rifts between him and Vakor."

Sig answered from behind. "Don't tell me how to feel."

A smile came to Jak's face, but it did not enter his eyes. "Keira's right Sig, we can't force ourselves upon you, it'd make you a target for Vakor, as it is, he still doesn't know about you, and if anyone's still loyal in the Government, they won't tell him. Besides, there's loyal colonies we can go to, Damas, the Islands, we could even take refuge in Nissen, after all we had good relations with the king before the take-over."

Sig and Keira relaxed slightly, but they didn't completely believe Jak, they knew that Vakor would be just like his father, not caring who he trod on to find Jak and his band of companions. Jak knew it too, but still, he had never feared for his life before, he wasn't going to start now.

The ferry loomed ahead of them, it had been set up to take passengers to a remote island between the mainland the Wasteland, then another cruise ship, owned by Spargus, would take the people onboard, blindfold them for security, and take them to the dock in Spargus. Jak had started the franchise to try and renew good relations between the two former rival cities after the Dark Makers fall, it had worked a treat, with many tourists coming and going from both lands, the depleted population of Spargus grew tremendously, of course the championship race held there helped too.

Jak skidded the car to a halt beside the walkway, he had met the captain on duty at the time only once, so he had to tread lightly, in case he was on the wrong side.

"Ten," he said, using as little emotion as possible, "and two animals." He gestured to Tess and Daxter, who pouted at being called "animals."

The guard looked a little suspicious at the troupe of weary travellers, wary of the man-mountain in metal-head armour and scared of the black-clad ninja woman, he also saw Jak as somewhat of a threat, though he didn't know why.

He rounded to car, kicking it's wheels, one fell off. "Strange to be travelling in this 'X'," he said, piecing together the clues, "strange to have to many, obviously scarred warriors aboard one car as you seem to be of quite high quality." he pointed to the fancy clothes they were all wearing. "And even stranger that just last night a car exactly like this one was stolen by an unknown terrorist in haven, driven into the wall of a triple-max security prison, and then seen to be driving away with around ten people in it." He looked down at the two ottsels, "Ten people…plus two animals."

Jak decided that was it, he pulled the sword on his belt, not the Sword of Freedom, that had been confiscated, only one he had found in the trunk of the car, and pressed it hard against the man's neck, not to draw blood, they needed him to captain the ship.

"Say a word and you're dead!" He almost screamed in the elderly captain's ear.

A slow smile crept across captain Rousseau's face, he chuckled. "You don't need to be afraid;" he said, still smiling, "I'm a full Haven man through and through, I know who you're running from, and I don't like playing stool Ragle anyway."

Jak released the old captain, starting to smile himself, and shook his hand, apologising with surprising grace for the misunderstanding. But the other man told him not to worry, and just was proud that he would have a king sailing on his ship.

Several hours later.

The barge drew itself up onto the shore of the wasteland, the same boat had taken them all the way, since Jak and co. were the only passengers. Jak thanked Rousseau once again for his help, and for keeping his mouth shut. And bid farewell to the old captain; stalking off with his friends into the dust-swirling chaos of the wasteland, until he was out of sight.

Another few hours.

Fire, fire all around, nothing but fir could be seen. Spargus was in flames.

Sig rushed through the Garage opening into the Wasteland, then practically wrenched the solid steel doors into the city apart, sprinting through the chaos of burning and screaming, calling for those who he had known and loved, his calls were answered by the screams of children and women as they fled the streets, leaving husbands and fathers to either try to quell the fire, or save other loved ones.

Only the palace remained intact, it's high altitude safe from the destructive blaze…for the moment.

Sig sprinted with more speed than thought of for a man his size towards the lift area, under the canopy of the cliffs the fire had not yet spread, so it was still in working order. Jak too also made it there before the compartment made it's ascent to the top, leaving the rest of his friends down below, waiting. They did not talk in the lift, Sig seemed to be in some sort of berserker rage not unlike Dark. And Jak himself, now almost fully turned to light, was concentrating on what he knew to be true, Vakor had started the fire.

The lift ground to a halt at the top, with it's passengers facing away from the throne. Slowly, they turned, knowing not what to expect, but what to fear. They're prayers for safety and large amounts of water to quench the fire were answered only the cruel stare of Vakor…

He grinned, a intolerably evil smile creeping across his pointed, hollow face, made so by the drugs he had begun to take to relieve stress, as his father had done before. He moved his arm, forcing Sig to look at it, though he knew what he would see, in the clenched fist of his enemy, he saw the head of his own wife, and he screamed.

Sig was on his knees, Vakor was pulling a weapon from somewhere on his person, Jak had to think fast, he could not reach vakor in time to stop the weapon from being fired, now revealed as an upgraded laspistol, with a blaster addition attached to the back, Tess's handiwork of course. One choice.

His back bent in a way impossible for any other man, almost to completely vertical, his body held up by some unknown physics. His hands moved at lightning speed, moving above his body just as Vakor pulled the trigger, clapping together as the shot burst from the barrel, and slowing time to a crawl.

Jak watched the shot split the particles of the air with interest, it had only gone a metre distance in almost ten seconds, but he knew he had to move before the time stop ended. A simple side-step removed any danger, and he turned to Vakor, realisation in his eyes, his brain moved at normal speed, but his body didn't want to obey his cries of "faster."

The warrior glowing with blue light stepped quickly up the steps, unaffected by his own trick, standing only inches from Vakor's outstretched hands, yet out of reach completely. He stayed a few seconds, remembering every contour and crevice of the man's face, memorising it for another time, when they would meet again, stepped back and crouched down to Sig. The eyes of the two former kings met, understanding swept through Jak's, and misery through Sig's. He hoisted the man heavily over his shoulder in one arm with immeasurable strength, and with the other, pulled the Plasmite RPG from his back, sending one shot bouncing off with gathering speed as the time stop wore off, landing feet away from Vakor, and jumped into the shaft before he could react.

Fire spread out from the tiny ball, engulfing the water pools and evaporating them immediately, the blast saved Vakor, as he was thrown out of range of the flame, landing on the other side of the room, groaning as his muscles spasmed both from their jarring and for being so still during the time stop, he was far too late to stop Jak, who was already racing away in the Javelin X out of sight, the remnants of the population of Spargus following in the other cars. But that didn't prevent him from trying.

He yanked a radio from his belt, speaking into it in whispers to someone on the other side. His evil features contorting as the other man seemed to be arguing against the orders he was being given, but he couldn't argue with Vakor, those who did didn't come back. Vakor ran to the window as the message was finished, just in time to see a small tracking device rise from the wreckage where his platoon was stationed and race off towards the cloud of dust on the horizon. He smiled again, the pain forgotten killing, Jak was going to be fun.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: That was that, now for the cat in the hat (music plays and cat in the hat dances then tries to kill people.) Well there's something you don't see every day, a cat eating the Prime Minister's head, oh well. (Whistles)


	9. Chapter 8: Kras and other drugs

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: We are here again, I decided to extent my story whereas before I wasn't, I may have said this before but I originally wasn't going to do this chapter, as, geographically, it didn't make any sense, but here goes.

CHAPTER EIGHT: KRAS AND OTHER DRUGS

More speed, need more speed; that was the sole thought of legend racing driver Razer as he rounded the corner to the finish line, UR86 was just ahead, picking up momentum in the last quarter of the straight. He jammed his foot on the accelerator, desperately trying to get ahead, it was just a casual race, with no prize to speak of, yet he still couldn't lose.

The nitrous oxide injected into his engine, putting another 50mph into his car, still not enough, the android racer was too far ahead, he was going to lose, for the first time since…well, since Jak last came to Kras, but that was neither here nor there, he thought, he still was not going to lose to the two-bit robot with steroid-like fuel.

Still he edged on, pushing against UR85's lead, almost there, all he needed was a few more seconds…

A crash sounded somewhere above the track, both pairs of eyes, human and android, shot upwards, to see a rather battered yet still recognisable Javelin X emerge from the trees covering the cliff running parallel to the track, it looked overcrowded by far, at least 15 people jammed into the front and back seats.

Razer's keen eyesight picked out Jak at the wheel, blonde hair almost falling out with what was either stress, or a particularly bad spin of eco poisoning, knowing Jak, Razer thought, it was probably the latter.

The car crashed onto the track just in front of Razer's, it's fly from the cliff keeping it going at a speed almost equal to the behind racer, almost, it still crashed right into the back.

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Some people emerged from the crash, some had to be carried, but miraculously, everyone survived. Even Maealan, who had been sitting in the back when the bumper crumpled against Razer's. He himself had to drag Karena out of the wreck, she awoke with a start and screamed, thinking herself back in the Temple, her old prison.

Razer didn't hang about, annoyed by his loss of victory, UR86 had rolled up in his shiny, unscathed car, not to help, as he didn't give a monkey's about them, but to gloat.

"What happened?" He asked Jak, as soon as he was conscious.

"Vakor's taken over Haven, we had to leave…forcefully."

By the confused look on Razer's face Jak guessed the news still hadn't reached Kras.

"What about Spargus? Surely you could have gone there instead of coming here to disrupt our peaceful lives once more."

Jak almost snorted with laughter, but couldn't quite manage it after the mention of Spargus.

"Spargus…it was destroyed, Vakor got there before us, we left the remnants of the population in the old Marauder fort, they'll be safe there 'til we go back. Anyway, we're not staying here, it'd just make him follow us again. We're off to Damas, they're far enough out and big enough to be able to defend better. But still, he'll find us eventually." Jak looked like he was going to say more, but declined, popping a message pod back into his back pocket, it had Samos' name on it.

Keira looked over to the stands, picking out familiar faces, it wasn't hard, the people had been uninterested in Razer of late, after his defeat at Jak's hands, the stands were only a few rows full.

Rayn waved, the two had become close friends after Rayn stopped deceiving them, what with Rayn's love of racing and Keira's general love of all things mechanical. She descended the stairs to examine the crash, she hadn't been unduly worried about Razer, as she knew he had survived a thousand far worse crashes, but he had "that" look on his face now, it wasn't a good sign.

Maealan half carried, half dragged Karena away from the crash, pulling her into a little alcove in the racetrack.

"What?" She said irritably, angry at being manhandled while still sore.

"I needed to tell you in the car, I had a vision, like the ones you used to have in the Temple. It was about Jak."

Karena was taken aback by this, she had had visions, but only about the precursors, never about anyone else. "What was in this vision?" She asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"It showed two babies, I somehow knew that they were me and Jak, and a woman, she had just given birth, and Damas, Jak's father, was standing over her, looking a bit worse for wear, he said something, there was no sound. Then, just…kinda dissolved, and it showed me, as a boy, with no Jak, and no mother or father, it was at the orphanage I was raised in. I…I think…I'm Jak's brother."

Three mouths gaped at this, Karena's, and Jak and Keira's. they had snuck round noticing the other two were gone, now they half wished they hadn't.

Karena noticed them first, then pointed tentatively behind Maealan's back, he turned, then groaned.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Asked Jak, not knowing how to react to a brother, having had all his family die or disappear.

"I didn't know how." He replied. "I was a bit confused myself, I only figured it out by that picture in the car, the one of your father…our father."

"Wait, that was only a few years ago, Jak's this old because he got sent back in time to grow up. How'd you do it?" Keira said.

"I never could remember anything before my twelfth birthday, it was a mystery, they just found me on the doorstep, and hospital records showed my mother had died when I was three." His head hung at this, remembrance always hurt.

"But…how? I was never told by anyone about a brother, and Damas specifically said that he had only one child."

Vin, unseen for a while, decided that was the time to reveal his presence, unfortunately that presence emitted itself from the tracking device that had been following them.

"I can explain." Said the tinny voice emanating from the speaker, and a holographic image of the techie popped up. "I've still got the files." Ignoring the slightly dazed look on Jak's face, and the aghast looks on the others, he continued. "After Maealan and Jak were born, Onin prophesied that one of the children would become king, and that if left unprotected they would be killed. Since Jak was mute, they assumed it was Maealan, and hid him with it time, after wiping his memory, those who kept him for a while sent him back, to an orphanage, they sent him back because they were changing, and they knew it was only a short time before they would be altered so much they may destroy him."

"Who were they?" Asked Jak, recovering his guile.

"I'll have to check the records." Vin's face disappeared for a while, then reappeared after about twenty seconds. "It was Gol and Maia, a pair of sages that lived over two hundred years ago."

Several more mouths opened wider, except Jak's, who had been expecting it. It was the obvious choice, they send one child to one sage, and the other to the opposite end of the spectrum, him to green, Maealan to dark.

"So that's who they were, I remember being looked after by two figures." Maealan said, comprehension of all the confusion in his life suddenly being explained.

"I thought they went all dark before that though. And I think ol' log nut would have mentioned Gol and Maia having an adoptive son." Daxter hopped down, deciding that he was knowledgeable to join the conversation.

"Samos was warned to keep it secret when he was sent through, young Maealan never saw Samos, though he was the architect of the plan. If anyone had found out about the prophecy, the hiding of the Princes, all that junk, they'd both be dead." Vin continued, while Keira ducked under the pod and examined it.

"Ummm, Vin."

"Yes Keira."

"Exactly what is this thing?" She asked, not really wanting to know.

"Oh yeah, sorry guys, it's a surveillance pod, been following you since Spargus. They should be here any minute…but, nice seeing you."

A roaring came from behind them, Jak didn't bother looking, he knew it was them.

Shouts echoed as battle began, many guards were surrounding them. Jak ran through them all, dispatching men left right and centre, but it wasn't enough. At least 400 men had been sent to capture the elusive king, no one would win.

He stopped in a clearing of dead bodies, staring around at the destruction, Razer was there, fighting like a madman, desperately protecting Rayn. He saw Maealan and Karena back-to-back, protecting a group of civilians from harm. And there was Daxter, not screaming and running, as he would have before, but throwing himself into the fray, fighting for freedom.

Then it changed, things stopped, as if time itself stood still, Jak saw what was happening morph before his eyes, instead of the brave fighters he knew and loved, there were warriors. Metal robots of skeletal proportion. They looked vaguely human, but no more. They marched through burning cities and provinces, killing as they went. They were the Necrontyr, changed by the C'tan through the subtle ways of evolution. They were no longer men. They were legion. They were death.

And it ended, it reverted back to the scene he had looked upon before, but once again it was different, they heroes were no longer fighting, they were being dragged away by armed guards in Kromzon armour, Maealan was not firing his pistol any more, he was unconscious beside his love. Torn and Ashelin were being shackled as he watched, screaming words of power that may have been used by the Precursors masters. Tess and Daxter were locked up, tied together in a tiny cage, unceremoniously being tossed into the back of a truck.

And he ran, he ran for all he could run. Away from the battle, only just registering that it was not only him that was running. As he passed numerous trees and streets in the Kras gardens, something was following him, keeping it's distance, yet still there.

But Jak no longer cared, he just wanted to get away, the very sight of the Necrontyr had planted fear in him, he had not felt anything more than a slight tinge of worry in over 5 years. But this, this was terror, pure, murderous terror.

He ran till he reached the sea, not stopping for the barrier of armed guards, just jumping. And suddenly he was in the water, being swallowed by the sea, he almost didn't want to fight against it, but he knew he had to. He pulled himself about and swam to the surface, he had already drifted out of rifle shot. He could still see the guards on the pier attempting though, the shots drifted wide, the watered-down eco blew in the wind away from him.

Hew as free, but the others were not, Keira, Daxter, Torn, Karena…Maealan, the brother he never knew he had. They were gone, and he had left them.

He pushed thought out of his mind, swimming further away, waves splashed his weather-beaten face hiding the tears he wanted to pretend weren't there. There was a boat on the horizon, one of the new ones going to the Islands. He headed for it. Away from the city he knew would either be in flames by the end of the day, or under control by the ruthless son of a monster.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: See what I mean? How could Jak get to Kras without another boat to the city from Spargus. But I thought it was too good not to put, as it gave you a glimpse of the Necrontyr and their masters. Hope to see some reviews, Helenilia, Agent, Morgane Lurkerstriker, hope you like it.


	10. Chapter 9: Guardian

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: greetings, be fine if I'm a bit downhearted, I just went through a break-up, some reviews would be nice! Although thank you to "Bob", dunno who you are but…thanks! I want to say that I didn't want to do the last chapter much, but it was just too cool to miss, everyone loves a tragedy, except you flamers. But they're welcome, I have a barbeque out front.

CHAPTER NINE: GUARDIAN

The cruise ship didn't take kindly to stow-aways; they had never, in all they're three weeks of operating, let a passenger be threatened by a stow-away, that was different.

Jak had had to have a little "talk" with the captain, after "gently" removing the crew to the brig. He managed to negotiate a first-class cruise to the islands, with all expenses paid accommodation in a hotel there. Life was good.

He sat sipping a glass of some mysterious green liquid, not that the liquid mattered, just the effect. He was drinking to forget, it hadn't worked. He still remembered her face, the sheer terror on Keira's face as she was thrown into the deportation van. She had been detained once before, during the two years of their separation, the cell mates had liked her, perhaps a little too much.

He got up, tossing the green juice onto the deck, where it sizzled slightly as if trying to burn through. He had had enough, time to get some sleep. He didn't need to sleep much since the dark eco mixed with light in his bloodstream gave him boundless energy, but sometimes it was necessary.

He climbed into the double bunk he shared with another rich passenger, at least he had until the businessman ran from Jak's rage after he used the dark warriors toothbrush. The material was scratchy sand uncomfortable, reminiscent of the cots in the underground den, strangely comforting to Jak.

Sleep was instant, nothing could keep him from slumber once he'd made up his mind, Keira regularly complained when he fell asleep during…..woops! Backtrack a minute. His dreams were troubled, filled with images of mixed-up men, half Vakor, half Baron, torture, murder, extortion, the typical Haven day now that the son of the greatest monster in history.

He awoke ready from a part of the dream when a baron who was now mostly Errol was about to torture Keira, he was glad of that. Not one for horror and stuff.

It was late in the day, a purple sunset spread light across the gangplanks. Jak walked out across the poop…deck. The captain was leaning out over the prow of the ship, where a gold emblazon of Haven city sat welded crudely to the hull by Haven's "master" engineers.

He saw Jak coming out of the corner of his eye, and turned. "We're almost there, another hour at most." He said, taking Jak's usurped kingship into account, he added; "Your majesty."

"Thank you, if this blows over I'll try to endorse this thing more." Answered Jak, rubbing the badly made deck. Budget was low after the war, and the service to transport rich fat Illinians to the newly discovered islands had been cobbled together too fast to be any good.

"That's all right, I'm not a sea man really, I was in the Guard at the time of the Baron, I served under his tyrannical rule, you're better. Don't think I'm doing this because you threatened me, I would fight you to the death if I thought it'd protect those aboard this ship, I'm doing this because you're a good king."

Jak smiled happy that there were some in this world who did appreciate his sacrifices for the city.

The islands were now in sight, they leered over the setting sun like something Jak had seen once on a holo-vid. Beautiful, Jak thought. It reminded him of Keira's eyes, somehow green yet gold simultaneously. This brought his spirits down. But he blinked back the tears, hiding them from the old general.

"OK." He said simply, the ex-general seemed to know something was wrong, but he said nothing.

A shout came to drop anchor, the guests themselves did not embark from the ship itself, no no , they were too rich for that. A second, better built boat took them to the lead island and they were either dropped off there, or, if they had far too much money to spend, they were flown to private islands.

Jak leaned back, threw what was left of his drink into the ocean, and strode over to the landing boat.

He pushed aside rich Illinians and climber aboard. Sitting cockily in the co-captains seat, the co-captain himself looked like he might object, but though better of it, not much was worth a fight with Jak.

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Jak jumped off the barge into the cold water below, a slight tingling around his ankles occurred as the eco-rich sea adjusted to his warmth need. He soon felt the water warm up slightly.

Walking ashore, he recognized the familiar terrain of their original landing spot. Ironic really.

Not much had changed, save the burger bars now selling up and down the beach, and the hundreds of tourists licking ice-creams. Laughing under his breath at the number of fat men running around after wily children, Jak set off straight into the jungle.

Hours later, Jak came to a clearing, another irony, he thought. It was the same clearing that Kleiver had been killed in. He didn't mind of course, two years spent in the cell of a dead man had hardened his mind to such psychological barrages.

He strode straight over the pathway made in honor of the old Wastelander, and over into the other side of the clearing, where the jungle trees quickly swallowed him into their hold.

He looked around for the way he had gone before, thinking to head to the old Mamoron shell bunker. It had shortly been turned into a hotel, but some were not as happy with sleeping in blood-stained sheets, so it had been abandoned once again.

He saw it, a little branch he had broken earlier to find his way back. I say little branch, but of course, knowing Jak, it was a seven-foot-long log thrown in the direction of their movement.

He took one step, then stopped. A knife was at his throat. Jagged and rusty, but sharp as hell. It had a Precurian look about it, as it had been made by them themselves, Jak made all these observations as he grabbed the knife, twisted the arm holding it, grabbed the small child holding it, for it was a child, and threw him straight into a tree.

Strangely the kid was still conscious, he stood up with seemingly no pain at all. Jak studied him, long curly blonde hair that fell around his shoulders, giving him a dark look. Rather tall, for his age, and one distinguishing difference. No ears!

Jak was horrified, an elves ears were it's most precious part of it's body, bar none. To cut them off was a feat of such evil it scarcely merited imagining. He had little time to ponder this, as the boy swiftly drew a broadsword from inside his long black robe, and swung it his way.

Jak drew his own sword, the stolen one, and brought it up to meet the enemy's blade. It snapped. The top of the blade dropped to the ground with a low thud. Jak stared at it for a while, then at the hilt in his hand. The kid grinned annoyingly, spinning his intact blade in his hand and bringing his hand up to Jak's eye level. His fingers beckoned Jak forward, universal tough guy language for "bring it!"

Jak dropped the useless remains of his weapon, drawing upon the eco inside him instead, making him change slowly from elf to dark elf. The boy was unperturbed, he also dropped his blade, although with more care, and seemed to want to take Jak on with his bare fists!

Jak smiled at this, the kid obviously had no idea who he was dealing with. He almost laughed out loud, but reserved to do that _after _the kid was on his back and perspiring. He circled the boy. Dropping down to lower his center of gravity. The child did the same, if Jak had known anything about earthen martial arts, he would have recognized the child's stance as one trained in the sixteenth Dan of Judo. Unfortunately, he had been mostly self-trained, and greatly enhanced by his eco-powers.

Jak attacked first, he had always excelled in offense. A flash across the face with his outstretched hand would have been his first move, he never lifted his hand. Instead he found himself on his back, with a searing pain in his back. Having no idea how he had come to be there. If someone had recorded the incident, played it back in slow motion, and had exceptionally quick eyes, he would have seen the kid grab Jak's hand as it started to come up, spin around him using his hand as leverage. Stuck his knee into Jak's back, twisted hard on his hand, forcing Jak to straighten out, the snap his body back, flipping Jak over, and leaving himself unharmed.

Jak got up, pretending his apparent defeat meant nothing, in truth he was devastated. He had not been defeated in combat for years immemorial. And this…this, _child _had taken him down in one move. This was more than he had expected.

The child smiled, and spoke. "I do not wish to fight you."

His accent was strange, like Sig's, only slightly different. He pronounce the "you" as "ye", and the "to" as "ti." Jak wondered where this boy came from.

"Sure you don't, which is why you attacked first." Jak said sarcastically.

"Actually you intruded upon my home, I simply defended it. After seeing what was in your mind, I realized I had no quarrel with you." His voice was calm, as if trying to sooth Jak's aching bones.

"You read my mind?"

"Yes, a difficult task to be sure, usually it's like breaking an egg, your mind, however, had barriers I have never seen."

"Then you know who I am…and…and why I'm here."

"More than that, I could calculate the day you will die if you wished."

Jak thought about it. "No."

"I expected that, no one wants the burden but me." He sighed ironically.

"You know my name?"

"Yes."

"Then what is yours?"

"I have many, Serpent of Silver Plumes, The Guarding Light, Protector of Secrets. You may call me Lachie."

Jak hummed for a minute, a sign that he was thinking. This was all a bit much for him. While he thought, the kid walked over to where his sword lay. He picked it up, gave it a quick wipe, and returned it to his back. If Jak had been watching, he'd have seen the sword disappear without a trace into thin air, but, as usual, he wasn't.

"Very well, you know my name, and I know yours. So we're on even terms then, but you seem to have deprived me of a weapon." Jak gestured to the remains of his sword. "And I can't very well defend myself with my fists after you just proved it quite easy to trounce me."

"You shall find others are not as experienced as I, but I shall provide you with a blade."

He started to head off into the deeper jungle. For want of something better to do, Jak followed him. They passed many old Mamoron bases, where Jak thought they were going to stop. But the man, Jak now thought of him as a man, boy simply didn't do him justice, bypassed them.

Hours later Jak broke the perpetual silence between them. "All right." He sighed, his voice heavy with weariness. "We've come this far, and I've not asked questions, but now I'm getting annoyed, you won't like me when I'm annoyed." They both knew it was an empty threat, the kid could rip Jak to shreds, but the boy answered anyway.

"As I said, I have many names, though none of them really matter, besides my original Name, which I will not divulge due to it's power. I was chosen by the Old Ones to guard this planet. After the fall of their empire, their servants, the Eldar took over. I have been exiled here for five hundred thousand years, and now the time has come."

"Why were you exiled? And why guard this planet? And where do you come from anyway?" Jak was not much better off, if anything he was more confused.

"The first question will become obvious once you learn the answer to the second, while the third will explain both."

Jak rubbed his skull.

"I will answer your second first. I was told to guard this planet because of what lies beneath it. A malicious, deviant power that could devastate this entire galaxy, if it was awakened. Millennia ago they ruled the universe, but they had no use for a dead body of servants, so they slept, until they were awoken by young races in the future, who they could harvest at will. After this the Races the Old Ones created to stop the menace turned evil, and spread, destroying what was left of their empire. Then the Eldar began to create their own servants, including the Precursors, who discovered this world."

"After learning what lay beneath the soil, the Precursors brought in the Eldar, who learned how to stop the creature from awakening, and they placed me to guard it. This is now the remains of the greatest cover-up in the history of our universe."

"That's one question, now what about the rest." Jak snapped, impatient in the growing dark.

"The third question will be my second to answer. I came from a world mostly ignored by the Eldar, but once they expanded their empire to match that of the Old Ones! Well, they paid more attention. They sent one of their farseers to search for some humans who would help them in their alliance with the Human race."

"And they found you."

"Yes, they found me."

"You haven't answered my question, I asked where you came from."

"Quite right."

Jak expected him to say more, but he simply moved to the next answer.

"As for your first, it should have been answered by now." Jak remained silent. "Very well, I was exiled because a large amount of power could awaken the creature. I was sent here in a shuttle-pod."

"You have answered my question. And as it seems you've been away for a few thousand years, you might want to know what's happened."

"No need. I read your mind remember?" Jak remembered, but didn't find it quite as funny. He thought about giving this kid A good kick to teach him humility, but he spoke.

"And don't bother trying to kick me, I've been trained by the best." Jak cursed, but walked on.

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Dark fell, the green sun setting over the horizon, turning the wonderful shades of lilac that all the rich tourists loved. The carrion birds settled down to feed their ravenous chicks, and Jak and Lachie settled down for the night.

Lachie didn't lie down, preferring t sit in a strange position. Legs crossed over his calves and hands resting on his knees. When Jak asked what it was the kid answered that it was something called the "lotus position." And was considered very relaxing on his home planet. Personally Jak couldn't see anything relaxing in twisting your body round this way and that, but he left the kid tow hat he wanted to do, and slept.

They woke with a start, shrill cries echoing through the trees. Lachie was up first, rushing towards the sound of the call, Jak not far behind. Both were fast, but the kid was faster, speeding past at a pace that seemed inhuman. When Jak thought about it, it probably was inhuman.

Lachie burst out of the jungle onto a chaotic beach. The source of the screams were obvious to all; the dark eco creatures had returned to their ancestral home.

They were all over the beach. Their razor-like arms slashing at tourists all over. Disemboweled elves lay dying on the sand. Jak nearly threw up, he had seen many a bad fight, but this was…it was simply beyond words. He thought nothing could be this harsh. A mother lay trembling, he legs and one arm had been severed by the creatures, n her one remaining limb she held a crying baby, Jak knew the woman was beyond saving, but the child, it could be helped.

He rushed towards the bloody scene, scooping the baby out of the grasp of a Tiger creature just in time. He held the wailing infant in his strong arms, while he backed away from the approaching menace. He had his weapon, a dagger but that would be little use against armor that thick.

The thing advanced, slicing the air experimentally with it's spine-covered arms. Jak backed off more, giving ground was a sing of weakness, he knew, but there was no other option. He could not drop the child, another beast was sure to take it while he was wrestling the Tiger creature. And he couldn't call to Lachie for help, he would have his hands full.

Jak snarled, trying to intimidate the monster. It laughed, a low, guttural sound that shook Jak's sensitive ears. Then threw it's head back, and roared, not for showing off, but in pain. At first Jak didn't understand, but then the answer came thrusting out through his opponent's chest.

Lachie dropped the Tiger creature off his sword, swearing in some other language as the dark eco splashed his leg and singed the cloth of hi trousers. Jak stared at the carnage that lay behind the boy. At leas forty creatures lay dead on the ground. FORTY! At a maximum Jak could maybe defeat ten, but to kill that many in the space of about half a minute! It wasn't considered possible.

Then he noticed something else, the tourists, those who had survived, were not moving. Their arms were wide and their mouths open in endless screams, but no sound nor movement came. Also, the baby in Jak's arms lay still, it had stopped it's crying. Jak took it out of it's blanket to see if anything was wrong, but apart from a gash on it's, or now his, leg, there were no injuries.

He looked at Lachie, who was smiling. "What did you do?" He asked, now even more wary of this child's powers.

"I simply stopped this madness." He replied, the smile was now gone from his face as he looked at the dead. "A little too late for some, it would seem."

He walked towards one of the bodies, an old man, somewhere in his eighties. He had been missed out by the monsters, but had simply dropped dead of a heart-attack. Lachie bent to examine him, he seemed to be checking his limbs, as if wanting to know as if any bones were broken. This strangeness was just a bit too much for even Jak to handle?

"What are you doing?" He cried, astounded at the boy's disregard for the body.

"Looking." He replied the angry king simply. He reached for the old man's forehead, touching to fingers to it. He shut his eyes, concentrating hard, it seemed. A pale blue light appeared around his index finger and middle. And also began to spread throughout the man's face, covering his features in seconds. Jak stared on in amazement at this, unable to grasp what was happening. That light was the same as Keira's healings produced, could this upstart youth possibly have the Light of Life?

The man, to the amazement of the few who had survived, possibly even to himself, stood up. Shaking himself to clear his head. He was alive?

Lachie turned to Jak, who's jaw had dropped long ago.

"That, my friend is fun." He smiled, Jak saw something slightly different about him, the way he had said the words was not as….pretentious as before. Now he realized his mouth was still open, he shut it immediately.

"That's right, don't wanna catch flies do ya?" There it was again, the slang now mixed in with his speech. The boy smiled again, seemingly amused by Jak's confusion. He pushed these thoughts from his mind, and turned again to what the boy had done.

"You used the Light of Life..? I thought only the Precursors could use the power, and Keira of course."

"Nah, you've forgotten, one of those Precursors mentioned it once, to you."

Jak felt a stray thought walk into his head, unbidden. It was of the dummy ottsel, talking in the mountain where they found him. "What about that one guyon the planet that I can't say? Where did he go? He was cool."

"Oh yeah, I guess you're that guy, why can't they say the name of your planet then?"

It's not that they can't, they could do so if they bloody well wanted to. It's all that 'speak of the devil' crap that scares them. They think some Eldar'll come up and blast them if they say the name."

"And it won't…?" Jak said, still confused a bit.

"Their empire fell millennia ago, they can barely control all the warp portals they left behind, let alone control them enough to be able to pop up in an exact point in space on the right planet even. They've been decadent and cowardly for centuries." He finished with a scowl on his face, thinking of the years of entombment he had served in this lost cause.

"Then why'd you agree to do this gig?" Jak asked, making the Lachie's scowl worsen.

"Kaelamenshicane." He simply answered.

"Ummm, right." Jak decided it would probably be best to let that one slip. The name alone was a bit too much for him. "Anyway, shouldn't we be getting out of here?"

"Currently I have no orders, and have received none for many decades, I can technically do whatever I damn well want." His scowl evaporated, replaced by his usual happy grin.

"And how do you do that without a ship?" Jak was put off by the new boy, somehow preferring his angry side.

"Whoever said I didn't have a ship?" Much to Jak's annoyance, the guardian's smile widened considerably, he brought something that looked remotely like a miniature version of the Ottsel leader's staff. He pressed and almost invisible button on it.

The ground began shaking, the sand of the beach stripping away to show metal underneath. Not precursor metal, as Jak had expected, but something silvery, that seemed to almost writhe before Jak's very eyes.

Unseen splits in the metal began to appear, showing the outline of a hatch, about twenty meters in diameter. This crack opened further, a light glow came from the depths below, a celestial blue colour.

Then a ship started to rise out of it. Made of the same metal as the doors Jak had seen. It shimmered in the hot sun, shifting to adapt to it's surroundings. Jak turned to the boy, who was, again, grinning. Jak found himself grinning too, in spite of himself.

"Shotgun"

The fires still burnt in Spargus city. Vakor's men had alighted the fuel supplies for the Eternal Flame, spreading it throughout the city to continue the fire. Not many had survived the attack, and most of them had been taken away by Jak and his friends. Only one remained.

The one the mattered.

Underneath rubble, and fire, and bodies lay his colleagues. They were dead, his leader impaled on his own staff, and his superior drowned in a small pool of his own blood.

He was the last, the last precursor. The rest were destroyed along with their home world, long ago, by the same threat he knew was heading this way at this very moment. He had Always been the stupid one, of course, the one that people ignored, instead talking to his leader.

And now he was the last.

He removed the metal skullcap the usually covered his bright green eyes. And cried.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: There we go, people. The precursors are dead, except for the dummy, and Jak has a new friend. I have just done my first self-insert, and I stress that this is not me! I only like my name, so I put it in there, and he looks like me. So I don't want people to call it a Gary Stu. (Male Mary Sue)

I'm sorry for the huge delay, I'm writing this at my school computer and the summer holidays only just finished.


	11. Chapter 10: Light among the shadows

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: Welcome to another beerfest for the mind, I mean that in the sense that I will destroy your braincells. MUAAHHHAAAAAAAHAHAHAAA!

Now that that's over, feel free to throw stuff at me for the amount of time it took me to update.

CHAPTER 10: SHADOWS AMONG THE LIGHT

Darkness surrounded everything, comsuming light, destroying sight. The prisoners had awoken to this, a blackness so complete they believed they had gone blind. He could see them writhing and screaming as they held each other's weeping forms. The man smiled, shock tactics, make the prisoners think they were doomed, and you could make them so. He noticed one who was not crying, or even shouting. She was sitting in the corner, hugging her knees to her chest, he saw her pretty face clearly through the state-of-the-art night vision camera hidden in the corner of the room. He recognised her, Keira Hagai, one of the rebels who had overthrown his father years ago, he had committed the faces of all those highly involved to memory long ago.

He had not expected her to seem to...human. He had in his mind a picture of men and women of malice and cruelty, who had destroyed the peace brought by his father, the baron, and plunged the city into open war. Here in front of him was a creature so beautiful to him he could not imagine anything better, a peaceful, serene look on her face. He shook his head, clearing such thoughts from his mind. They were the enemy, not to be trifled with.

He backed away from the wall-screen, let them weep, he thought, tomorrow worse will come. The torture has not even begun yet.

Keira heard Tess crying in the dark, and Daxter's high-pitched voice trying to console her, while fighting the panic that raised his octaves up a few notches for each word. In the corner opposite, for she assumed the room was a cube, Ashelin's voice was shouting, at anyone, anyone to blame for what was happening, Torn was talking to her, trying to form some sort of plan, complete uselessness of course, but it helped fight madness. Karena was crying pitifully, the cell reminded her of her almost perpetual confinement in that dark room, waiting for the heir of Mar to come and release her, Maealan was holding her close, whispering words of confidence in her ear.

The others were all either wailing or scraping at the walls in some attempt to get out. Keira herself had been silent all along, she had sat in her corner and thought of Jak, hoping, no, waiting for him to rescue her.

Jak himself was riding shotgun, in the most technologically advanced craft in his world, and most likely a few hundred others. The fact that he was riding shotgun was cool, but he would have much rather been flying the incredible vessel. It was incredible, no visible means up propulsion, it handled like a dream, and some sort of air vents held them up, not seats exactly, but somehow more comfortable. The air shifted stronger and weaker for heavier parts of the body, though Jak couldn't think how the computer managed to weigh him.

"How long till we're in Haven?" He asked the ever-silent captain.

"Ten minutes" He replied testily, questions had been retconned out at the start of the flight. He needed to concentrate on flying, it had been over three thousand years since his last jaunt.

"What! We only left half an hour ago! It takes six hours to get from the islands to Haven, and that's without a fuel break!"

"After all the good things you said about this ship (see the first paragraph) do you really think it doesn't go faster than yer little puttering pathetic excuses for ships?" He looked Jak in the eyes this time, to try and deter him from answering the rhetorical question.

"No." He had failed. "And what do you mean the first paragraph?"

"Just shut up and look out the window like a good boy."

Patronism seemed to be this infuriating kid's speciality, though he seemed to be no older than 13, but he looked anyway.

The world rushed by at a spectacular speed, he saw Morien flying away below him, a patch on the planet, it's borders clearly marked out by scorched fields all along the wall, where the villagers had burned them to keep out invaders from the south and east.It seemed so small to Jak. All the troubles of it's people seemed miniscule now, washed away the quiet above the world.

Ahead was Haven, plumes of smoke rose from it, marking it's position clearly. Their destination. The big smoke, people called it, Jak could see why now. The smog spiralled up into the atmosphere, all that pollution obviously wasn't doing their planet any good, he'd have to start some sort of help for that.

"How long now?"

"We descend now, I'm gonna miss this ship." The boy stroked a part of the dashboard lovingly.

"What do you mean?" Asked Jak, fear creeping into his voice.

"I mean hold on tight." Said Lachie, and pressed the eject button.

The crying had stopped, and now silence filled the dark void. Vakor was concerned by this, it usually lasted a good twelve hours, obviously these ones were stronger than the rebels he had crushed before. They would need no longer in there, torture came next.

Something niggled at the back of his mind, the girl. She had still not spoken a word, just sat there, staring at nothing. It disturbed him, the look on her face was so deeply imploringly sad. He felt himself not wanting to hurt her, as he usually did. Instead, other thoughts entered his mind.

Jak was falling, he couldn't see, the wind blasted his eyelids closed before his mind could register images. He didn't know how long his descent had lasted, only that it had been too long. He was also aware of the lack of a parachute on his back, bad sign, without a parachute he'd be spread on the ground like jam, unless he did something.

He did, wings spread from his back, and he felt the familiar warmth cover his torso, then arms, and rushing down his legs, then his head was engulfed too, the transformation was complete. He flapped the thin wings sprouting from his spine twice, that should have righted him, although he still didn't open his eyes. He then began to pump them for all he was worth, trying to slow the rate he fell at, before he became very flat. He felt the strong wind on his face lessen, then fade almost away. He opened his eyes, he was floating only six metres from the ground. Six! One more second and he was street pizza, literally, he was hovering above Al's Pizza Parlour.

He hopped down into the air duct releasing pizza-smelling fumes into the sky. It stank of wet cheese down there worse than Daxter's bedroom, but Jak held his breath and bared it. He crawled down ten metres of duct to a grille below his feet. Al was busy down there preparing sickly pizzas for opening, Jak punched through the grille and dropped down behind him. The overweight elf let go of the margeurita he was holding and spun. The sight of a glowing blue angel that bared a frightening resemblance to his former king almost gave Al a stroke there and then. It was run or faint choices, he choose the second option.

Jak stepped over the almost epileptic Al and made his way through the kitchens into the diing area. Outside bustling Havinians were rushin past, ignoring the dirty looks the newly red-clad Krimzon Guard were giving them. Keep your head down and your opinions to yourself, and you might make it out alive. That's the Haven way.

Jak needed a disguise, he looked back through the corridor to Al, he was just getting up. Jak switched back to his normal appearance, he needed the parlour owner concious for his plan.

Al had noticed Jak by now. He was looking half scared, half hopeful. Was this really jak Mar, come to get rid of his oppressors again? Al was a stoic supporter of the King, and Vakor wasn't doing anyone any good. He didn't know whether to bow or curtesey or whatever. Rotalty didn't usually visit his humble parlour.

"Umm...Your Highness...It is an honor...Umm...Hi...uuh...Hi." Not Shaespeare by anyone's standards, but good enough considering the situation.

Jak smiled, this guy was the perfect citizen, get flustered when you meet the king and you're ok, it's the ones that have no problem you need to watch out for. "Nice place you got here."

Al stared at the margeurita sauce staining the floor. Nice? It was a mess!

"Thank you, your kingliness." He slapped his bald head at that. Kingliness?

"How would you like dto do a favour for your old king Jak?" Asked Jak, he didn't have time for foreplay (As Keira well knew).

"Depends what it be your majesty, I ain't got the stamina for no combat or nothin'."

"Nothing too strenuous, but it does involve your clothes." He gestured to the grease covered apron Al had on. "And I would need a zoomer."

Al sighed in relief. Thank god he wasn't going to be part of any revolt against Vakor. He wouldn't last five seconds in the Underground movement.

"I can do that my lord, I have a three-seated zoomer out back, and a spare apron for yourself. It's an honor to serve you."

"That's good, I always liked the pizza from this place."

"Beggin' your pardon sir, but I never seen you in here before." Al wrang his apron, he hoped Jak didn't know about some of his ill-gotten ingredients.

"I used to steal them from you when I was on the run from the Baron, so I think we're quits for the stolen pastries."

Al's heart nearly shut down then, but Jak patted him on the back and pressed a 500 dinar bill into his palm, Al's greedy eye lit up like fireflies.

"Daddy? Is someone there?" This was a new voice, coming from the back room, feminine, and rough.

"No Jessy, just me talking to myself again."

The girl, who was obviously his daughter, evidently didn't believe him, because she came striding through. Sher raven black hair was tied back in a bobble that bounced gently as she walked. She had the figure of someone who had spent a lot of time working, but not much working out, a belt with a few small trinkets hung squint on her waist, and a locket in the shape of a heart was draped around her neck. She hopped over the low step into the kitchens, and saw Jak standing there.

Now, usually, young girls would scream if they saw this sandblasted figure standing over their father in what looked like a very threatening posture. Not Jessy, she lashed out with her heel, striking Jak in the chin before he could react, he went down, but not critically, he was up in seconds. The girl circled him, a kitchen knife in her hand, her face determined and hard. Al tried to calm down the situation by trying to explain to his daughter who the man she had just kicked was, but all that came out was a stream of barely legible words, Jessy heard nothing understandable.

Jak dropped into fighters stance, ready to stop, without hurting, this girl. He saw her do the same, she had obviously had a little training in combat. She flicked the knife up and caught it again by the blade, throwing it straight at Jak's head. He dodged, and caught it deftly between his middle and ring finger, he threw it backwards, where it dug itself into the wall.

"I don't want to hurt you, but I will." Strangely, this sentence, so familiar to Jak, came from the mouth of this young girl, who took the loss of her only weapon surprisingly lightly.

"I won't hurt you too badly if you keep out of this."

"You won't touch me." She said, and pounced.

Jak swerved aside as the girl's entire body flew past his. Faster than the eye could see he twisted round and grabbed her ankle, yanked it down and had her pinned in a nanosecond. He elbows kept her arms down and he had his knees on her thighs, she wasn't going anywhere.

"Now who's cocky?" He asked conversationally, she bared her teeth and struggled, but she was too young to overcome Jak's trained muscles.

"Don't hurt her!" Shouted Al. "She's all I have now." He had tears in his eyes.

"I'm not going to hurt her, I'll even refrain from teaching her a lesson, for your sake."

he stood up, giving Jessy the benefit of the doubt, and held out his hand to help her up, she took it, and yanked him down. She held his legs and arms in the same way he had, pinning him back. he would usually be fine, but here he had no leverage.

"Not so cocky now." She grinned wolfishly, and stood up, holding out her own hand. He rolled onto his stomach and backflippedm onto his feet, surprising her. Now that her mind wasn't concentrated on battle, she realised she recognised him.

"You look familiar, I haven't seen your mugshot anywhere have I?"

Jak laughed. "We haven't been introduced. Jak Mar, king of Haven city."

Her stomach broiled and twisted, she'd kicked the king! Bowing was in order.

Jak lifted her chin off the floor where it rested in her bowing position. "Don't bow, you were only defending your father. Stand up. What's your name"

Jessy did stand up. "Jessy Laeran, your highness."

Laeran! Jak knew that, it was Tess's maiden name. Could this little girl be related to his best friend's wife?

"Laeran. I know it, are you a relative of Tess's?"

This had evidently been the wrong thing to say, both father and daughter dropped their heads.

"She...she was my sister. Before...before she died." Jessy's hand went the the locket on her chest, and popped it open. inside was a picture of tess, still very human, around 18.

"Died? Tess isn't dead. I saw her not three days ago. Just before Vakor caught her."

"No no, she died about two years ago. Killed by one of the Dark Monsters."

Jak realised what must have happened, Tess became an ottsel then, and practically disappeared off the planet, in all the confusion, she must have been put down as one of the dead.

He had a lot of explaining to do.

The prisoners could hear gears clanking in the darkness. The sound of doors sliding open. Keira leant back and almost fell into one of these doors. It opened upwards, like the bottom of a laundry shaft, so they couldn't climb out.

Then came the hissing.

Metal bugs, hundreds of them, no bigger than rats came flying down the shafts into the room, stinging and biting. They came at the faces of the prisoners, injecting painful venom into their systems, it wasn't enough to kill them, or even put them to sleep, but it hurt beyond any pain they had experienced before. Sig stumbled around and knocked into a wall, he simply went flying and didn't bother to stand back up again. Keira curled up into a ball to protect her face, and cried. Where was Jak? He was supposed to save her, like he always did. Where was he? Where was he? Where...

Vakor's head swam with guilt. He could see the beautiful girl curled up in her corner, he could hear her sobs above the whine of bug wings. The pain was unnecessary, he was sure she could never have gone along with the scheme willingly. That rat Jak Mar had obviously duped her. He could end her pain, all he need do was press a small, red button, and she was safe. his finger hovered above it, he should press it.

But then, his father wouldn't have, his father would have had them all executed by now, it was the right thing to do, they were traitors all. Murderers and conspirators, death was the only honorable way out.

He pressed the button, he was not his father.

Jak stomped through the busy streets of the Haven City Industrial Section, pushing blandly past hurrying citizens. Behind him, Jessy trailed, he was angry. She was keeping him up, he wished he hadn't agreed to let her come. But then again, she needed to rescue her sister. He was good friends with Tess, she would want her sister to be the one to rescue her.

"Wait up!" She called to him. Reluctantly, he slowed his pace.

"If we keep having to slow down we'll never reach there." He said irritably.

"I want to get there as bad as you, but we don't even know where we're going!"

I know exactly where we're going thanks very much, you're just here to play along and help out if need be."

"So that's all I am! An assisstant! Here to look pretty and scream if I get in trouble!"

"I didn't say that, I said you should keep your mouth shut and let me show the way." Jak snapped, he was wasting time, Keira could be being tortured as he spoke. He stalked away through the crowd. Jessy sighed and hopped after him, not the easiest companion, but anything to save her sister.

Keira heard a great whooshing noise somewhere above her. And a sucking wind pulled at her sea-blue-green hair. The suction was pulling all the bugs out of the cell. She no longer felt their sharp teeth on her skin. There was a collective sigh of relief as all the prisoners released their baited breaths.

A whole wall rolled back, letting light rush in. It burned the prisoner's retinas. A figure stood there, imposing a shadow into the cell. It was tall, and well built. Keira looked up when her eyes had adjusted. The firugre spoke:

"Come with me." Keira knew instinctively that he was talking to her. She stood up, there was no point arguing, that would only bring her pain.

The figue led her out of the cell, no longer just a sillouette, she could see him properly. It was Vakor.

"You should be grateful that I chose to stop the bugs, sometimes the damage can be fatal, and people go blind from the venom."

Keira was sickened by this, he had used the torture on others. "We don't have much cause to be grateful to you."

Vakor couldn't argue with this simple statement.

"What did you do with those people after they were tortured?" She already knew the answer.

"They were executed of course, like the traitors they were."

"Is that what awaits me?"

Vakor paused, unsure. "No."

"And the ohers?"

A quick answer this time. "Yes."

"Then I'll die with them!" She slapped him hard across the face, they both came to a stop in the middle of the hallway.

"You will not die with them, because I do not wish it."

"I don't care what you wish! If they're to die then I will too!"

"I do not believe that you took part in the others terrorist activities, obviously you have been forced into this world against your will by that Jak character. I understand he even married you forcibly."

"Forcibly! I love Jak you idiot! What you call "terrorist activities" were the fight against a tyrant! Your father!"

Vakor frowned, he had not expected this. "You need not be afraid of retaliation by them now, you are safe."

"I'll never be safe as long as you are alive! And in turn you will never be safe as long as Jak is alive." Her beautiful face hardened, and she said no more.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: There we go, setting the seeds for war. Such fun. I'm glad I managed to get this finished quicker than the last one.

SOME REVIEWS WOULD BE NICE!


	12. Chapter 11: Vicious loves

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: Ak, I is tired, but I must make a start on the damn chapter. I NEED REVIEWS PEOPLE! I haven't had one in months, what is wrong ith you? I'm getting huge hit counts but no reviews! Ok, let's say that i live off reviews, and that I' starved half to death, I need to feed in the next week, will that entice you enough?

CHAPTER 11: VICIOUS LOVES

He sat in his office, fuming. It hadn't meant to be that way, she was going to break down, confess that Jak had forced her into it, and beg for forgiveness for betraying his father, and he, being a merciful man, was going to give it to her, instead, she had humiliated him. He felt it now, he loved her, her fire, her petulance, her defiance, it set his nerves ablaze. The look of hate on her face only excited him more, he wanted to kiss those pink frowning lips, and watch the loathing in those deep blue eyes turn to love. He knew it, he could never kill her. And she would never love him. He placed his head in his hands, and wept.

Jak gagged on the rancid stench filling his nostrils. Effluent pipe, not the best place to be in Haven city, the citizens loved curry.

But of course, he was used to this kind of thing, he couldn't imagine what it would be like for Jessy, trawling behind him, a city girl through and through, not used to the muck and dirt. Every few minutes she let out little moans of disgust, but quietly, hoping not to seem weak in Jaks eyes, too bad his hearing could pick up a pin dropping at fifty paces.

Finally she broke the long silence, and released her displeasure. "I could have got us in with the pizza delivery routine, but nooooo. Sewage is muuuuch better. Nothing like someone's feceis slapping you in the face to get you ready to storm the Prison!"

"The security's been bumped up since you and your crooked old man were in the smuggling routine. Besides, Vakor orders burgers."

"And you know this how?"

"His father liked to eat them in front of me, after starving me a few days." Jak's face darkened, as it always did when remebering the dear baron's tortures.

"Ah, lead on then."

Keira was thrown unceremoniously into the cell again. She was fuming, angry at Vakor's blind arrogance and ignorance, the fact that she and all her friends were now most definitely dead made no difference, she could have said yes to him, and begged for her friends lives, but she didn't, in the moment, she couldn't.

The others crowded around her, there was now a low light in the cell, coming from a luminous bulb-like thing in the ceiling. She could see that most of their faces were tear-streamed, although most tried to hide it, Sig tried to nonchalantly wipe his eye.

"What happened?" "Where did you go?" "Did he hurt you?" "Are you alright?" She had the questions launched at her from every direction, her head spun, turning from person to person as they all shook her for answers.

"I'm fine." She replied, the last question first. "That was Vakor, he didn't hurt me. He just walked me down a corridor, asked me a few questions and then I got dragged back here." She didn't tell them about his confession, better that they didn't know. They might even blame her for refusing him.

"Did you see where we are?" Torn had stood up, and obviously stopped spouting ridiculous escape plans.

"No, I saw what might have been other cells down the corridor, so we may be in the prison. But if we are, it's been revamped enough to keep 500 raging metal-heads prisoner and no one would hear a sound, the walls looked metres thick."

"Screw how thick the walls are, Jak'll break them down like cardboard!" Sig had got the shake in his voice under control now enough to talk. "He didn't give up on any of us, and he'll break every bone in every guard's body to get here." Sig smiled, his confidence in his younger friend absolute.

"I don't think even Jak could get through that many guards, I passed a window, Vakor must have been preoccupied, or he would have taken me another route, where I saw at least 1000 guards ready for battle. Where is he getting all these from? The Haven folk wouldn't have served him willingly, not after the Baron." Keira looked around, desperate for answers, the incident with Vakor had shaken her up, mood-swings were inevitable.

"That's what my father was working on for a few years before he was brought down." Ashelin answered. "Cloning techniques, there must have been some sort of store for the men, because it takes two years for them to mature. I thought we had destroyed them all."

"Cloning? He could have thousands of them! Why wasn't Jak told of this?" Torn was angry now, shouting, not at Ashelin, he wasn't stupid, but just at whoever happened to be there.

"He was in the Wasteland when we were irradicating the stores we knew of, and after he got back we were all a little busy with the Dark Makers."

"Who's this 'we'?"

Ashelin took a deep breath. "The council and I."

Rats would have infested the Prison, if not for the self-targeting plasma cannons marked all around the corridors that shot anything that moved on sight. Metal Bugs would've found homes away from the cannons, if not for the electircal scourge that was sent through the ventilation system every two hours. The Underground would have planted operatives in the Guards stationed there if not for the gruelling loyalty test taken by every Guard working at the Prison, they were shot in the arm, and if they didn't proclaim loyalty to the Baron still they were hung. No one in their right mind would try and break in.

Ho hum.

Jak nonchalantly punched the Krimzon Guard at the base of the skull, he went down like a sack of rocks. He then gave the partner of said Guard a swift rabbit-punch to the nether-regions and kneed him in the face while the redclad elf was doubled over. Jak then turned and signalled to Jessy that it was safe to come through, she timidly stepped over the unconcious guards like they might bite her, then bounded after the already leaving Jak.

"How do you know where to go in this place, it looks like a maze." She saw at least thirty corridors leading off this way and that, someone without a map would get lost in minutes.

"I spent two years being dragged round this place to various different torture chambers, I learnt my way around pretty quickly."

"And how do we know where Tess and the others are going to be?"

"There was one torture chamber that stood out from the rest, it didn't really involve pain until the end. The object was to break the convict's spirit, make him more malleable and subservient. It was called the dark room, and every new inmate faced it, Vakor will be using it on everyone he captures."

"What happens in the dark room."

"It's dark." Jak replied with finality.

Jessy wasn't familiar with Jak's temper, and ignored the clear signals to shut up. "That's it? It doesn't seem so bad, yeah maybe if people are scared of the dark then they might get a bit scared, but other than that..."

Jak didn't reply, he merely grunted. Even Jessy couldn't have missed that, and decided to hold her questions.

They crept around a blind corner, Jak went first to check for guards, there were none. Jak found this a bit strange, Vakor must know he was coming, why wouldn't he post more guards? The whole place screamed of "Trap!", Vakor had something up his slieve.

A rattling.

Jak froze, and bent his head upwards to the ceiling, there was something in the piping, something big. He drew a pistol he had stolen from the guards, and circled, trying to pinpoint where the something was. He raised the gun, the thing was deirectly above him. The safety on the pistol snapped, and Jak cocked the gun, the hair trigger would shoot in the thing decided to drop down. It did.

But not above Jak, no no, Lachie hopped onto thr ground directly behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. "BOO."

Jak leapt out of his boots, and spun, firing off shots, but nothing happened, he knew the pistol ws loaded, he had checked it, but there weren't any shots coming out.

"I disabled the gun, man. no good getting myself shot is it?" The boy smiled his annoying smile.

"Well turn it back on! I need this!"

"Oooohh, nasty." Despite the evil grin strtched across his mug the boy waved his hand in a complex gesture, the gun made a fizzing noise. "There you go. And I see you managed to find Jessy alright then." He pointed to the stricken stiff girl behind Jak.

"Yep, Tess's sister."

"I know."

Jak didn't bother asking how the boy knew, he had probably planned the landing so that Jak would land on Al's parlour.

"Come on then, it's this way." Lachie started off at a right angle to Jak's oroginal line.

"No, the dark room is this way, that leads to a block of cells."

"If I may point out that the prison was damaged a lot during the war, then you might remember that the cell block was moved away from the warzone on the eastside so the prisoners of war weren't all killed. This is now the way to the dark room, that corridor leads to the clone holding area, 4000 battle-ready cloned Krimzon Guards lie a few hundred metres that way, I doubt even you can take the all on." That smile again, like the kid knew everything, lord he was infuriating.

"Fine." Jak grumbled, and followed the boy like a pied piper.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: There we go, my internet might as well have shot itself in the foot, as it takes ages to load a page, so I may be a little longer in my next update. Toodleoo!


	13. Chapter 12: Claws In The Darkness

-1THEMAKEROLIGHT: Ok, I'm finally back on the horse, took me long enough. For all of you out there that have been reviewing with such enthusiasm, I can only apologise for…hehehehehehe. I'm sorry I can't say it with a straight face, reviews indeed, what a crease.

CHAPTER 12: CLAWS IN THE DARKNESS

"Hey kid, you know where you're going or am I gonna have to take charge here, as the responsible adult?" See how the kid liked some of his own sarcastic medicine.

"Nah, I'm alright, got to know my way around here pretty well over the years." Lachie said it with a grin on his face, but Jak could detect none of the bounce that had previously inhabited his baritone voice. And something in his eyes spoke of pain and suffering, Jak knew what a few years in this place could entail, so he didn't bother asking.

"I'm sorry." He said simply, Lachie looked back and caught Jak's eye, as they shared a moment of mutual understanding and pain for everything the Baron had done to them.

"Hey, wait up, you guys have long legs." The high pitched, deceptively girlish voice of Jessy broke the silence between them as the night-haired girl came rushing round the corner to catch up with them. "I thought I heard the big man apologising for something, did he break your favourite dump-truck toy?" A giggle escaped from Jessy's lips, lightening the dark mood.

"No, he was saying sorry for making me apologise cos he broke you're best Girls Aloud CD." Neither Jak nor Jessy had any idea who Girls Aloud were, but the gist of the joke was inherent in Lachie's mocking smile and twinkling eyes.

"You guys done or do I have to give the kid a time-out and lower your curfew young lady." Jak received a cuff round the ear and a thump in the chest for these comments, but it was worth it.

They continued down the corridor, arguing and poking fun at each other, but soon the malevolent aura of the prison sank into their systems, filling their thoughts with more pessimistic views of their situation. After a while of walking in silence, brooding over the fight that was soon to come, Jessy decided to attempt to lighten their moods.

"I'm bored." She didn't do this very well.

"Only boring people get bored." Snapped Lachie, losing his train of thought.

"Well I'm boring then. You got anything to read in that bath-robe of yours?"

He rummaged around in his pockets for a second, at one point reaching his arm all the way in and jiggling it, despite the pockets looking far too small for such a feat, eventually, his hand re-emerged holding a small white object with wires dangling from it.

"Listen to that if you're so desperate." He said, tossing the device to Jessy.

"What is it?"

"A magical little music box, now listen and shush." He turned back to the path ahead, jogging to catch up with Jak.

Jessy examined the small white box for a little while, turning it over, running her hands over the insignia on the back; an apple with one bite out of it. Eventually she deduced that the small nodules on the ends of the two wires were designed to go in her ears, and the keypad on the front activated it.

Once turned on, the device (You will all have figured out that it's an iPod by now) went straight into a pre-programmed play list. Jessy examined the tiny screen and the text now running across it. The words (that were written in precurian text) read: Duality - Slipknot.

Immediately sound blasted out of the speakers in Jessy's ears, nearly deafening her and shattering her sensitive eardrums. She ripped the speakers out of her ear, and turned the song off.

"Goddamn this kid's taste of music." She grumbled, and flicked through the songs until she found something she liked, a play list including bands she had never heard of, such as Snow Patrol, Coldplay, the Fray, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and James Blunt.

She turned the sound up loud, blocking out the creaks and groans of the prison's machinery that could be heard through the walls, the soft pads of her feet as she walked on, slowly, having no wish to catch up to the boys too quickly, the drip of water as it fell from the damp roof, and the clank of the Krimzon Guard's boots as he crept up behind the young girl. Before Jessy knew it, the butt of the Guard's rifle was smashing into the base of her skull, and her world went black.

Ahead of where Jessy was attacked, Lachie and Jak trudged forward, discussing their battle plan.

"There's bound to be at least thirty Guards and one Lieutenant guarding the prisoners, maybe even some jetpacks. I suggest we use the Peace Maker to take out the main groups, the Beam Reflexor to weed out the stronger survivors, and the Needle Laser to blow the jetpacks out of the sky." Suggested Lachie, the adrenaline of the coming battle pumping through his alien veins.

"There's bound to be more than that, there's usually only the amount you mentioned guarding prisoners, true, but this time they know I'm coming, they'll be more cautious. They'll have hordes of cloned Krimzon Guard clustered around the main entrance, and plenty of Death Bots patrolling the corridors." Countered Jak.

Three Guards crept along behind the arguing pair.

"Then maybe the Arc Wielder at first, to send the robots circuits wild, and then the Super Nova once we get to the groups of Guards."

The Guards silently cocked their weapons, sliding new cartridges into place. Jak and Lachie shared a silent look.

"No go on the Super Nova, it's too powerful, it could blow the door off it's hinges and injure one of my friends."

Slowly, the patrol team spread out behind the two targets, coming closer to them.

"The Mass Inverter, then, it should work for long enough to let us blast through the doors, and would have no casualties."

They raised their weapons, so near to their promotions.

"We're not gonna solve this any time soon, maybe we should get these guy's opinions." The elf and boy whirled to face their would-be assailants. "What do you think we should do?" Jak grinned as he saw their mouths drop open and their trigger fingers slacken as they figured out who he was talking to, and the realisation dawned on them; they were all walking dead men.

Jak swung his arm upwards under the nearest Guard's barrel, his first shot going high. A swift clawed hand thrust through the thin metal of the soldier's armour ensured there would be no second. To Jak's left Lachie used his sword to slice off his opponent's right arm. Immediately he turned tail and ran, screaming in pain and terror, seconds later, a dagger embedded itself up to the hilt in the back of his head. The two warriors turned to face the final Guard, his own death reflected in his eyes as Jak swung his now sizzling hand towards the doomed man's neck, and Lachie's sword, gleaming with the blood of his now dead comrade, cut through the air towards his side.

"WAIT!!!!!" He screamed, milliseconds before he was decapitated, only experience and quick reflexes stopped the movement of his former targets. They lowered their respective weapons, but kept their eyes trained on the Guard, watching for signs of movement from the arm closest to his abandoned gun.

"I heard you talking earlier, about how you're going to get into the jail room." He grasped at the one bit of information he had about their plan.

Jak appraised the sobbing soldier, who he now realised was very young. "Go on." He said, not unkindly.

"I can help you get in, I know things, I was one of the guards assigned to their room."

"Well then I don't see why we should keep you alive, we can easily get through there ourselves and frankly we don't much like taking advice from people who held our friends captive." Lachie raised his sword again in mock threat, trying to worm more information out of the stricken teenager.

"No, don't kill me, please, I was only doing my job. I didn't want to, the Baron threatened to kill my family if I didn't join up. I never wanted to be in the army, especially having to fight alongside those…things." Jak's interest piqued.

"What things? What's Vakor created now?"

"Creatures that brought fear to us every time they walked by. Creatures of living metal. They looked like robots, but they were shaped like skeletons."

Lachie's eyes widened, and for the first time, fear entered his visage. "Living metal?"

"Yes." Sobbed the Guard, now seeing that his interrogator had also seen the creatures. "They had golden-bronze insignias imprinted on their chests, and gleaming red eyes."

Terror gripped Lachie's heart, he knew what this could mean, but it wasn't certain, this could be some invention of Vakor's, cobbled together from the old texts. He needed to know one thing to confirm his suspicions. "Did any of you ever see them get destroyed?" He whispered, begging that he was wrong.

The soldier gulped, recalling the fighting to take over the city. "We saw it happen once, while we were still fighting the remaining FL troops. They had managed to gain control of a blast bot, and had it headed towards our HQ. Nothing we had could take it down, so Vakor released five of the creatures, sending them towards the bot. It got two of them before they reached it, blasting them into dust." A sharp intake of breath from Lachie, hope burned strong in him. "And then the other three got on top of it and started ripping circuitry out of it, they didn't even flinch at the shocks they must have been getting. The bot kept it's gun spinning, knocking out two more of the skeletons, but the last one just wouldn't die, it kept dodging and ripping out more."

He let loose a sob of anguish and pain, the terror of what happened next filling him. "And then I heard the bot tick, the way it does when it's about to go off, I shouted to my friends, they were gathered around it's feet, shooting out it's legs from underneath it, but they didn't hear. I tried to run forward but my lieutenant grabbed me and dragged me back. I was forced to watch when the bot blew up, and the burning bodies of my friends landed around me." He broke down in tears, collapsing to his knees and holding his head in his hands, through his sobs, he continued. "I could see that last monster, lying dead on the ground, half of his body ripped off by the blast, and I took solace in the fact that the thing responsible for my friend's deaths was destroyed."

"But it wasn't, was it?" Breathed Lachie, the hope that had so recently burned in his heart quickly being snuffed out.

The soldier shook his head.

"You saw it glow with an eerie light, and raise it's head up, then you noticed a growth appearing at the bottom of it's torso, and saw it's legs sprout once more as it reformed itself, didn't you?"

A nod.

Lachie breathed deeply, attempting to ingest the knowledge and keep his cool, then gave up and sank to the ground, mumbling in a strange language. Jak wasn't so dramatic, his picked the soldier up from the floor and gave him his gun back.

"You go now, get your family and flee the city, you ever come back here you'd better be signing up for the FL. You understand me?" Jak emphasised each syllable with a point of his knife, making the guard flinch with each word.

"Please, I can't leave the city. My brother died out there, I won't put my family in danger like that."

Jak could see that no amount of threatening could change his mind, his face was set rock hard, calmly readying himself to be killed. Something in his intense expression of bravery and defiance reminded Jak of someone, but he couldn't place it.

"Where did your brother head to? I may have met him on one of my travels."

"W-we had relatives in rock village, he headed out there when news of the attack came in, reports say he was incinerated by the dark eco."

"Yeah, yeah, but what was his name?" Jak said urgently, ignoring the sparkling of tears in the guard's eyes and the quiet gasp of Lachie hyperventilating.

"Well, his first name was Jublan…" Jak breathed a sigh of relief, and a little giggle. In precurian, Jublan translated as small penis. "But since he got a lot of slagging for that, he made up the nickname Sakken."

Memories flooded through Jak's mind. Flashes of a white-purple face, spiking dark eco, slowly changing into the calm features of the former tortured creature that gave his life to save Jak's and Keira's. There was a debt to be paid to this man's brother.

Jak thought carefully for a minute, then reached behind his back and pulled out a spare scatter gun, then attached a blaster mod to it and handed it to the soldier. "Now you take this gun, and this key," Jak pulled one out of his pocket," and get to the old weapons factory on the west side of the city, there's a door to your left with an indentation in it, insert the key in and you'll be taken to the comm room of the old Underground HQ under the city. You and your family can stay there in the meantime."

"Th-thank you. I promise I'll sign up for the Fl as soon as things get back to normal. And I'll never assault a citizen again. And I'll apologise to that granny and give her the money back. And I'll get my that kid's holo-vid player back from my nephew. And…"

Jak stopped him before he revealed any more felonies that Jak may have to run him in for later,. The tall elf spun the guard on his heels and sent him sprinting back down the hallway to freedom, then reluctantly turned to the now recovering guardian sitting in a heap on the floor.

"What metal-bug did you swallow then?"

"Not a metal-bug, their creator's creators." Lachie whispered, his voice filled with dread.

"So…the creators of the metal-heads then? Surely they can't be that bad, not worse than the dark-makers that are bearing down on us, anyway."

"What dark-makers? You destroyed them."

Jak looked puzzled that the kid didn't know about the fleet. "I only destroyed one ship, there's a whole fleet of them bearing down on us. I'm surprised you didn't see it coming.

"Well I didn't see it coming because it's physically impossible, that ship was the last one in the whole dark maker empire, they just have a few scattered colonies one odd planets here and there, surrounded by the natives. All the planets they captured they simply scoured."

"Whaddaya mean the last one??!" Jak shouted, eyes widening. "There's a whole dark maker planet out there, to balance out the precursor planet. That's how the universe works."

"The universe works exactly like that, well done." Lachie smiled, pleased that Jak had been so astute, only a little of his old flare entering his eyes. "Which is why the precursor planet was destroyed years ago, those three were the only ones left."

"But, if I destroyed the dark maker ship, and the universe always keeps the balance, then…"

"Sorry."

"No…."

"I'm so sorry."

"When did they…you know"

"Two were killed in the destruction of Spargus, the third will follow later. He'll survive long enough to pass on his last secret to you."

"And what about the fleet then, we saw it through the star viewer, there's definitely something coming."

Lachie sighed, and leant against a wall, staring up at the direction of the sky. "What rides in the ships of that fleet is far more cold than the dark makers, far more vicious than the metal heads, and far more powerful than the eco creatures. They created the metal-heads from the living metal, and unleashed them upon the universe. Their number is legion, and their name is death."

"They are the Necrons."

The name sent a shiver running up Jak's spine, something that doesn't happen often, as if some primal instinct had imprinted fear into his phsyche.

They were created near the beginning of time by the C'tan, to become their undead servants, undying, emotionless killers of everything. In the first age of the universe, they devastated entire galaxies, ending nearly all life, all that survived was a tiny sector of a planet where a minuscule remnant of the once great race the Old Ones still clung to life. The C'tan ran out of enemies, and so began to war on each other, killing ang killing each other to grow stronger, until there were only four left. Four armies of necrons to divide the universe and destroy everything. The C'tan foresaw this and knew that eventually there would be nothing left, and they intended to survive. So they agreed to wait, to lie dormant in decimated planets until the galaxy had grown lush and green again."

Lachie put his head in his hands and exhaled slowly.

"So they waited in their tombs beneath dead worlds for millennia, while life regrew on the worlds they had destroyed, and nearly all memory of them was lost. But not all, that last sector of the Old Ones still knew of the danger that lurked beneath their very feet. They feared to try and destroy the C'tan in their sleep, in case they accidentally awoke the necrons and started the cycle of death again. But they planned against it, creating the perfect races to oppose the necrons, the Eldar, who in turn created the precursors, and set them on the worlds that the necrons had hidden themselves in, and they waited."

Jak absorbed the information slowly, digesting the fear gnawing at his gut, then swallowed, and, almost afraid to ask, spoke. "So, these Eldar guys, they could help us? They're the big powerful race that can stop this fleet before it gets here, right?"

Lachie smiled sadly. "Even if we had some means of communicating with the Eldar, their long wars with the forces of darkness, the hordes of chaos, the dark makers, the eco creatures, the tyranids, the orks, the dark eldar and even humans, have weakened them almost to the point of extinction, they couldn't help us again an entire fleet."

Jak nearly shut down on the spot, having to force himself from passing out. "B-but, can't we reason with them? Negotiate for out survival? There must be something they want."

"There is."

"Then what? If we can get it, we'll give it to them."

"They want this planet." Lachie mumbled in undertones.

"But why????!!!!! Why this planet? Where's the fairness in all of this? The universe is supposed to have balance! We're getting all the bad stuff."

"This is balance, balance for the countless years of peace this planet experienced during the rule of the precursors, before the metal-heads found this planet. As for why they want this planet, that's harder to explain. "Do you remember I said only four C'tan survived the long wars to enter hibernation?"

"Yeah."

"Well, to this day, three have awoken, the deceiver and the night bringer appeared on some unknown planets, no one knows where, because all the surrounding planets were annihilated almost instantly, the third was hidden beneath the red sands of a planet close to my home called mars. Mars was a huge human settlement, with some of the most powerful weapons ever made stationed on it, and the third C'tan was virtually alone, being the weakest C'tan still alive at the time of the slumber, it was destroyed by a Titan as it tried to flee."

"And the fourth?" Asked Jak, apprehension etched across his face.

"And the fourth…." Lachie lifted one finger, and pointed straight at the ground beneath his feet. "Is right down there. That's why both the deceiver and night bringer want this planet, because this one is the last and most powerful C'tan, a master of war and commander of the most vast armies ever assembled. They need him dead before he wakes up."

"I thought you said the Old Ones placed guards on the planets the necrons inhabited, where's ours?"

"That would be me." Lachie said calmly, pointing at himself.

"You!!!!!!??? You're just a kid, you're barely out of nappies already! How the hell are you supposed to see off a power that nearly destroyed the universe???"

"I am not a kid, I'm over five billion years old. And I'n not gonna be the one destroying the fleet, you are, I'm just the means to their end. My body is a living cell, given enough time, I could soak up enough energy to, channelled the right way, blow up whole galaxies, and I've had a helluva lot of time. I'm your ammo, we just need a really big gun." He grinned inanely and chuckled at the idea of himself sitting inside a giant catapult.

"Then why did you get so damned upset earlier when the kid described what happened?"

"Because…" The kid sighed once more and hung his head. "Even if we destroy the fleet, we still have to deal with another problem."

"What's that now? Giant space worms have come to destroy our supply of yakow milk? Great big centipedes are gonna wipe out every sand-shrew in the world?" Jak almost laughed, then caught Lachie's eye.

"Where do you think those necrons the guard saw came from?"

Jak gulped. "I assumed they had come from the fleet, an advance scout or something."

Lachie shook his head. "The necrons send no scouts, they know no fear, so they don't need to know what lies ahead. Those warriors came from inside the planet, the red metal proves it, that was the colour scheme of the last C'tan."

"So even if we somehow manage to get the city back, find a gun big enough to fit you inside it, and destroy the fleet, we've got a big muckle army of undying soldiers coming up right under our feet to contend with?"

"Yup."

"Well that's shit."

"Uh huh."

"Anything we can do about it?"

"Yup."

"What?"

"Blow the shit out of them."

"Oh…ok then."

"The only way to truly kill a necron so it doesn't rise again is by incineration, or by destroying their leader. The former is nigh impossible to do to nearly fifty billion walking war machines, so you've gotta get down into the deepest catacombs and destroy the C'tan."

"Well, that'll just be a walk in the park then, won't it? At least I've got you to boss me around." Jak sneered sarcastically at Lachie, the boy did not return the look.

"Nope."

"Why not."

"Cos I'll be dead, the gun will drain me of not just the power I've accumulated over the years, but my own life force."

"And you're not scared at all?"

"I've seen death, and I know what comes after. It doesn't scare me."

"You've seen what comes after death?" Exclaimed Jak. "What is there?"

"Light."

And then the boy was gone, not vanishing in anything as corny as a puff of smoke, but simply leaving without any movement or sound.

Jak stared at the spot where Lachie had been, until he heard the footsteps of Jessy behind him.

"Hey, ran into some trouble with a few guards, one of them slipped behind me and undid the cuffs that one of the others had put on me, and I did a little incapacitation on them." She looked around, noticing Lachie's absence. "Where's the kid?"

Jak stared morbidly at the spot of Lachie's disappearing, and quietly said; "Gone." Then he walked away, towards the prisoner compound, and the love of his life.

Keira sat staring at the wall, her back resolutely turned towards Vakor, who was sitting calmly in his cushy chintz chair, hands clasped on top of a file on his desk.

"Kindly look me in the eye, Keira, I would not enjoy having to punish you for your insolence." Vakor knew it was an empty threat, he could never harm her, and obviously Keira wasn't convinced either, but she eventually spun in her chair, and put her feet up on Vakor's desk, a look of casual defiance on her beautiful features.

Vakor stared at the mud from her boots that was now smeared on a picture of his father, and fought the urge to sweep her feet off the desk and attack her. He had convinced himself he could make her see his reasoning with what was in the folder, and he needed to be patient until then.

"So why am I here? I thought I made my feelings on you and your reign of tyranny last time." Keira crossed her arms and stared down the new baron, using the technique Jak had taught her to intimidate weak-minded people, Vakor held the contact for a few seconds, then used opening his folder as an excuse to break the stare.

"I thought I'd have one last attempt at getting through to you. Do you still maintain that Jak is a good man? That he is in balance with the forces within him?"

"I know it, as does everyone in that room."

"Well that's strange, I could have sworn that these were pictures of him slaughtering Krimzon Guards." He picked up the top three photos in the folder and handed them to Keira, she looked down at the image of Jak, transformed into his dark self, attacking a weaponless guard. She turned to the next photo, and saw a small boy cowering against a wall as the dark monster advanced upon him, the third showed the aftermath of one of Jak's rampages, dead guards lying on their backs, some with their armour torn off and stomachs ripped open.

She threw them in Vakor's face. "Anything can be faked these days with a flatbed scanner and a holo-vid producer." She pouted and looked away from Vakor, not quite believing it herself. She had come to terms with what Jak had done during his dark years in Haven city, but she knew he was still haunted by the people he had killed in those days.

"Well that may be true, but I think we both know I wouldn't lie to you about this." She looked back at him, and their eyes connected, this time, Vakor did not turn away, and she could see the truth in his dark eyes.

"Well maybe I don't care, I know that Jak did this sort of stuff and I'm not proud of him for it, but I also know he did it to save the city, and it all ended up well after the baron was brought down."

Vakor flinched at the mention of his father, as he always did. "I disagree, the city was nearly destroyed by Jak's actions, my father could have stopped that."

Keira spun off her chair, knocking the picture of Praxis flying, and stood up, anger flaring in her eyes. "Your father was a tyrant!" She shouted at Vakor, leaning over the desk. "He killed more of his own citizens that metal-heads, and he planned to destroy the entire world by cracking over the precursor stone! He was mad and destructive and he nearly killed us all! If it wasn't for Jak, we'd all by little specks of dust floating in space right now."

"My father made a mistake, his intentions were good, and under his reign the city was the safest it had ever been."

"His intentions were to use the war to remain in power, and the city wasn't safe, it was oppressed. People were too scared of having their families disappear to do anything even remotely rebellious, those that were brave enough to actually fight back were killed mercilessly. How do you define that as justice."

Vakor looked away shiftily. "I believe we've gotten off topic here."

"Yeah, ok, fine, run away from your shame of a dad, keep trying to convince me Jak is some psycho."

"Actually, I'd rather not, it's obvious you won't listen to the reason of his instability…"

Keira looked hopeful that this meeting would be over.

"So I have to resort to drastic measures." He reached back inside the folder, and pulled out the last two photos. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to show you these, but you give me no choice."

He handed the pictures to Keira, and she reluctantly looked down at them. The first was a picture of Ashelin and Jak, in the throne room of the old palace, Ashelin hugging Jak from behind, and the second…

The second shocked Keira beyond belief, it showed a scene in the Wasteland, just outside the gates of Spargus. Again it was of Jak and Ashelin, only this time far worse. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, his hands edging down her back towards her buttocks. And their faces were embroiled in a passionate kiss.

Keira's hands shook, her brain refused to accept what she was seeing. She hoped to god that the photo was fake, but her heart told her it wasn't. Tears appeared in her eyes, and she dropped the pictures to the floor.

Vakor stood, ready to play the comforting shoulder to cry on, and then more. He walked around the desk to the now sobbing Keira, and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Do you believe me about Jak now?"

"I believe…"

"Believe what?"

Her elbow swung out quicker than the eye could see, crushing his sac to mush and causing instant excruciating pain. Vakor bent double, then collapsed writhing to the floor, gasping for air.

"That I don't need anyone, especially you."

She gave Vakor one more kick in the head for good measure, then took the custom-made one-handed blaster from the holster at his hip, picked up the picture of the kiss, and strode out of the room, leaving the guards to laugh about the strange groaning noises that emitted from their leaders chamber. Nothing unusual would be noticed, those sounds were normally noticed after one of his meetings with Keira.

On the other side of the complex, a guard stood on duty outside the prison cell of the Underground fugitives, waiting for his colleague to return from the pisser. He was nervous, but that was normal for him, he had never wanted to be in the guard, but then again there was no other job that didn't have the risk of abuse by the guard themselves, and he had managed to get a relatively safe posting inside the fortress.

His friend had been gone a long time, maybe he wasn't coming back, maybe the old king had chosen tonight to return for his friends, the ones with nothing between the king and them, but one little guard. He'd have no chance.

The guard shook himself free of the tendrils of fear, the other guard was just taking a dump while he was at it in the toilet, that's all. There was no way Jak would have been able to sneak into the now even more heavily guarded fortress undetected. He let out a nervous laugh to dispel the apprehension, the very thought.

That, of course, was when a purplish white hand snaked it's way around his neck and cleanly snapped it.

Jak gently lowered the body to the ground, careful to avoid even the slightest noise, and slipped his hand into the guard's waist pouch, bringing out a small, red card, and inserted it into to indentation in the cell door, while Jessy quickly stowed the body behind some pipes.

The massive steel door slid open, revealing a dark room, filled with the sounds of heavy breathing and frantic whispering. Jak's eyes immediately switched to night vision, and there sat, as clear as day, the group of friends he had lost what seemed like such a long time ago.

"Miss me?" He said lightly, making Torn look up and smile.

"You took your time, did you mess up your hairdo?" The two old friends both chuckled, and clapped each other on the back, before Torn was forced to leap out of the way to avoid being crushed by the stampede to reach Jak and hug him.

"Where were you?"

"We were getting tortured in here?"

"Who the hell's the girl?"

"Jessy?"

"Tess."

The motley band of prisoners stopped their harassment of Jak to watch the two estranged sisters embrace, ottsel to elf.

"I was so worried about you, after you went to the Underground, me and daddy didn't know what to do."

"I didn't want to leave you, but it was vital you could really say that you didn't know where I was, or the Baron could have used you against me and the Underground."

The two sisters continued on a strand like this for some time, but Jak wasn't listening, he was scanning the room for the one person he was sure would be most pleased to see him. She was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Keira?" He said aloud to no one in particular. He was answered by solemn faces all round.

"She's in a meeting with Vakor." Ashelin said slowly and carefully.

"Why? I didn't think he'd have anything much to say to any of you."

"Yeah…" Put in Daxter. "But he's…kinda…fallen in love with her." He braced himself for the explosion, he wasn't disappointed.

"WHAT???!!!! THE SON OF THE MAN WHO TORTURED AND MUTATED ME FOR TWO YEARS IS IN LOVE WITH MY WIFE???!!! IS THIS A FUCKING SOAP OPERA???!!!" Jak looked around for something to be mad at, then resorted to punching the wall with his bare fist. The wall was three feet thick, solid concrete, he had cracked it within five punches, and made a sizeable hole within ten.

Eventually, he calmed down, and stopped punching, then turned around and faced the nervous bunch.

"So where's this guy's office then?" He asked casually, as if asking directions to the post office.

"It's…on the other side of the fortress." Intoned Torn darkly. Both knew what that meant, on the other side of the 200 battle-ready Krimzon clones armed to the teeth with some of the worst torture weapons known to Elf.

"Great, just when I need Lachie, he pisses off."

"Who?" Collective.

"Long story, you lot take the nearest exit and go to the old Underground base through the old weapons factory, there's a Krimzon Guard deserter in there that should be able to give you information on the Guard's movements and tactics. I'm going after Keira, if I don't come back…I must be playing connect 4 with Vakor and his cronies."

The group nodded, and set off down the hallway, Daxter remained between Jak and the departing group, his head swinging towards Jak, then towards Tess, then back to Jak again.

"Go on Dax, I can handle this one, take care of Tess and Jessy."

Daxter reluctantly set off towards the group, then moaned and bounded back towards jak, shinning up his legs and torso and onto his shoulder guard.

"We ain't been doing enough stuff together lately, and you wouldn't be Jak without Daxter, remember that. Besides, those two'll be doing make-up parties and shoe shopping and stuff, I'd rather face those clones with nothing but a tooth brush and a packet of sherbet lemons than be part of that."

Jak grinned his most maniacal grin, and set off, stopping only to pick up a small white object from the floor, Lachie's music box.

If he couldn't have the kid fighting by his side, he could at least use the loud, metallic music to induce some aggression. He inserted the plugs into his ears, and selected a song at random, then set off towards the clone hall.

_Can you feel that?_

Jak hit a guard over the head with the butt of his own rifle.

_Ah shit._

He smashed another's skull into the wall, and used the momentum gained from pushing of the guard's body wait to crush the third and final soldier against the opposite wall. He then stole this guards key card, and inserted the key into the hole in the clone hall door. He prepared himself for hell, and jumped through.

_Ahwa-a-a-a!_

Instantly shots were being fired at him, he transformed into his light form and flew along the ceiling, forcing the guards to shoot out their own light supply.

_Drowning deep in my sea of lonely._

_Broken your servant of meeee._

_When you give it to me._

He grabbed a girder as he passed it, spun himself up, drew a weapon from his pack and fired three plasmite RPGs into the mass of guards below him.

_It seems whats left of my human side_

_Is slowly changing, in meeee._

_When you give it to me._

The now normal Jak propelled himself to the floor, using several guards to break his fall, s the final lights were shot out, plunging the hall into total darkness.

_Looking at my own reflection_

_When suddenly it changes!_

_Violently it changes!_

Slowly, Jak rose to his feet, dark eco sparking from his fingers, a different person, darker, and stronger. His claws gleaming in the darkness.

_There is no turning back now_

_You've woken up the demon_

_In MEEEEEEEEEE!!!!_

Jak spun around, claws extended, slashing the throats of the guards the surrounded him, and suddenly stood very still, staring ahead at the cowering soldiers in front of him, oblivious to their danger. His bloodlust raged within him, and he pounced.

_Get up! _

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Open up your hate, and leave it open to me!_

_Get up! _

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_You mother get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_You fucker get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Madness is the gift, that has been given to me!_

His claws sang through the air, ending life after life after life. The guards were so confused they couldn't even turn on their night vision, and began to shoot wildly, a few of the shots even came close to grazing Dark Jak, but this only served to fuel his rage more.

_I can see inside you_

_The sickness is rising_

_Don' t try to deny what you, feeeeeel!_

_When you give it to me._

Blood.

_It seems that all that was good has died_

_And is decaying_

_In meeeeeee._

_When you give it to me._

Carnage.

_It seems your having some trouble_

_In dealing with these changed_

_Living with these changes!_

Pain.

_The world is a scary place_

_Now that you've woken up the demon_

_In meeeeeeeeee!_

Death.

_Get up! _

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Open up your hate, and leave it open to me!_

_Get up! _

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_You mother get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_You fucker get up!_

_Come on get down with the sickness!_

_Madness is the gift, that has been given to me!_

These were all the beast wanted, all it felt it deserved to inflict upon the world, and it got them. Only when all the clones that had once stood in that room were dead, was it's bloodlust finally sated.

Jak's mind flooded with clarity, and he stared around at the destruction he had caused, momentarily grieving for the sadness he had brought upon the families of these men, before relief filled him as he remembered that these were clones, although somehow, this excuse did not completely satisfy him.

He heard a gun cock behind him, and whirled on the balls of his feet, ready to strike down whoever owned the barrels of the gun now being pointed at his face.

Keira.

His eyes filled with tears of happiness, and he rushed towards her, a wide smile spreading across his face, that was instantly smeared off it again by the nudge Keira gave him with the end of her gun. The anger and despair in her eyes now apparent, and the tears in her eyes were of pain and loss, not happiness.

"Keira?"

She said nothing.

"What's wrong, love? What've I done?"

Her expression hardened still more, and she reached into her pocket, withdrawing a folded up piece of paper. She threw it at Jak, and he caught it deftly before it could hit him. He unfolded the paper to see a photo. It took him a second to realise what he was seeing, then understanding dawned in his eyes, and he looked up at Keira, his very soul pleading with her to forgive him.

"Keira…."

"What??" She broke her silence. "You can explain? It's not what it looks like? The photos fake? Tell me that it isn't true, tell me she forced you, or that you were tricked. Please…." He saw her desperation seeping from her very body, her stance begging him to tell her she was wrong. "Make it better."

He wanted to much to lie to her, to tell her that it wasn't true, but he could never lie to her, he just couldn't, and they both knew it.

"I can't."

The gun in her hand began to shake, and fresh tears sprung in her sea-green eyes. Her legs buckled underneath her and she fell crying to the floor, her gun sliding away across the floor.

Jak quickly ran over to her and picked her up, cradling her sobbing form to his chest. Whispering to her how much he loved her, how sorry he was and how much he would try to make up for his monumental lack of judgement.

"It was before you an I were together, I swear. I had just saved the world, again, and I was disheartened with everything, I wasn't thinking straight. I saw Ashelin walking out of the dust after I blew up the dark walker, and…I don't know, I just did it without thinking. We both regret it more than you could imagine."

He turned her body so he could look her in the eyes. He just stared at her for s few seconds, hoping to see forgiveness in those deep rock pools, seeing none, he leant down and kissed her. Slowly, and firmly, she curled her arms around his neck and pulled him close in a tight embrace as she began to kiss him back, in that short moment, without speaking, he knew she had forgiven him, and in his minds eye, he danced a jig of sheer joy.

THEMAKEROFLIGHT: Stares at chapter for a few seconds, then bursts out crying God, I'm so lonely.


	14. Chapter 13: Saving Private Daxter

_THEMAKEROFLIGHT:__ Hello and welcome back to the pathetic mound of dogshit that is my life. I hate love._

_Anyhoo, I finally got a couple of reviews, one for the war, one for the battle., Yes, you__'__re right, it is from Bartimaeus, I really liked the name so I pinched it. And although it would make sense for Jak and Keira to be the same age, notice that although she's Samos's daughter, she isn't around in Jak2, when Jak is 4 or five, so, logically, Keira is born after Samos goes back in time, so Keira must be at least four years younger than Jak. :D On with the show._

_CHAPTER 13: SAVING PRIVATE DAXTER_

_Daxter sat on the cold floor of the clone hall, grumbling to himself about Jak__'__s annoying blindness._

"_Damn hero, always forgetting me. I__'__m the real brains of this operation, but he can__'__t even be bothered to pick me up before running off with Keira-weira. I shouted, goddamnit I shouted, but mister lovey-dovey can__'__t even be bothered to let little orange lightning hop up on his shoulder.__"_

_The little ottsel trudged through the piles of dead clones to the large metal door on the other side of the hall, and pushed furiously against it, to no avail. It was akin to trying to move a large hill with a dung beetle. Daxter refused to accept the hopelessness of his situation, and tried to scratch his way through the floor, and was rewarded with some rather sore and bent fingernails._

_He screamed with frustration and slammed his tiny fists onto the metal door frame._

_GONG!!_

_The sound of the minute impact was multiplied a hundredfold by the hollow casing of the door and the vastness of the clone hall, sending a long, deep note reverberating through the complex. The sound was replied to with the sound of machinery._

"_That can__'__t be good.__"__ Whimpered Daxter, just before the huge robot walker crashed through the door and snatched him up._

_"You know, I can't help feeling we forgot something." Muttered Jak as he carried Keira down the long hallway to the fortress exit._

"_Probably nothing, or just stress." Keira replied._

"_Yeah, probably."_

_The small, fuzzy, green-eyed creature was breathing, but only just. The desert had nearly defeated him, but he truly had the heart of a warrior to have made it this far. The bladed marauder stood up, cradling the small animal in the crook of his arm. He surveyed the landscape, and the incoming storm on the horizon, then looked back down at the unconscious creature in his arms. He knew in his heart that it could not fight, could not survive in the warrior culture that he called his home, but he had too much compassion in him to simply leave it to die._

"_I will keep you, but the elders must never know." He whispered softly to the animal, whose eyelids were just beginning to flutter open. "Perhaps you will be the company I have been seeking all these long years."_

_The dummy ottsel's eyes flickered open, revealing a horrifying sight. The man that held him was a patchwork quilt of scars and dark-eco burns, his horrible wounds barely covered by the blade armour he wore as his only protection against the raging sandstorms. A power sword swung slowly at his side as he walked through the churning winds towards his equally bladed vehicle. And a metallic device covered his right eye and part of his ear._

_The dummy's blood ran cold in his veins as he recognised the man that appeared to be saving him._

_Baron Praxis lived again._

_Daxter's eyes opened slowly._

"_Subject conscious." Droned a metallic, amplified voice. "Vitals normal for species. Vocal chords capable of near-human speech."_

_Even in his drugged state, Daxter wasn't going to stand that. "NEAR-human?! Speak for yourself, metal-mouth. You sound like a bean can in a blender!"_

_His smart mouth earned him a fist into the guts from the darkness mere inches from his face. _

"_You would do best to be polite, our master does not tolerate smart-mouths."_

"_He can tolerate what he likes. He'll be sorry when my friends get here." Dax grinned at the idea of this mysterious voice getting his come-uppance, Jak would turn him inside out._

"_I doubt that, our master has never been defeated in single combat. A spiky-haired half-demonic half-angelic eco-freak isn't going to be the first." The voice didn't seem to be bothered about disguising the malice in his voice when he spoke._

"_Jak's never been beaten before, either. He's had every single bad thing on this planet and a coupla others thrown at him at a hundred miles an hour, and he's come out unscathed. Beat that!"_

"_I will not enter into this pointless argument with a scruffy orange rat, you will find out soon enough the sheer power of our master."_

_A suction pad extended from the darkness and attached itself to Daxter's face. He heard the sound of gas hissing through the pipe linked to it, and he held his breath. Holding out for a full ten seconds, he gasped for air which wasn't there, and his world went black as he descended into a gas-induced slumber._

_Jak was sweating nervously._

_Jak sweating was a sight to see. The dark eco in his bloodstream seeped into his sweat glands, and out of his pores when he was in trouble or very hot. The electric nature of the eco covered every inch of his body, until he was, quite literally, static, anyone to touch his bare skin got a nasty shock. Not that they would have time to notice it, for under the small thunderstorms of the dark eco, his light side pumped out light eco through his pores right behind the dark, which not only immediately healed anyone who was shocked, but also gave him a curiously blue, purple and sweat-coloured sheen._

_The reason in this particular instance for Jak's perspiring was the gun barrel jammed into his genitals. The gun was held by a diminutive ottsel by the name of Tess. Normally, Jak wouldn't be too worried about a gun being pointed at him, but Tess's bad temper and extraordinarily fast trigger finger was legendary enough to get him more than a little nervous._

_Although Jak didn't contest Tess's right to jam a rather too large gun into his lower extremities, Jak was nonetheless anxious to have it removed from said area. Therefore, he decided a liberal amount of apologising was in order._

_He started modestly. "My bad."_

_This comment didn't seem to please Tess too much, as she responded first with a jab upwards with the gun, making Jak wince, and second with a long stream of Precurian swears._

_Keira decided it was time to intervene. "Tess, it wasn't Jak's fault, really, I distracted him and he forgot about Daxter."_

"_He FORGOT about my DAXY-POOS!!"_

"_Well, it was an easy mistake to make, it's not like he's been hanging off my shoulder recently, has he?" Jak was once again rewarded with a sharp jab upwards. The onlookers in the other caverns of the Underground base watched in amusement at the spectacle unfolding before them. Jak made a mental note to give each of them a dressing-down later._

"_You…" Breathed Tess through gritted teeth, keeping her voice very controlled. "Are going to go back there. Right! Now! And you're going to get Daxter back, or so help me…!" The gun cocked, accentuating the threat that was left hanging in the air by Tess._

"_Yup, sounds good. No problem with that. You Jak?" Keira was playing the cooperative friend, throwing Jak a lifeline._

"_Nope, fine with me. Go back. Find him. Bring him back. Gottit."_

"_Good." Chirped Keira briskly. "Now do you mind getting that gun out of my man's gonads? I'm gonna need them." Keira through Jak a wink. Tess removed the gun, but Jak just sweat more._

_Once again Daxter woke up with a headache. His world swirled into focus, this time his surroundings were different. The first thing he noticed was grey, a lot of it. And then that his hands and feet were no longer strapped down. He sat up and rubbed the red rings around his wrists and ankles, noticing that he was sat upon a large metal table in the centre of a large room. Lights blinked on the far wall, and Daxter recognised the tracking equipment of the Fortress Throne Room, just outside where he had fought Kaiden for Jak's survival._

_A voice came from behind him, cold and emotionless. Forcedly flat. Had Daxter known anything of psychology, he'd know that this could mean one of two things: that the owner of the voice truly had no morals, no emotions, no complications…or that he was hiding too much pain to describe._

"_You'll have noticed where you are by now." Daxter turned towards the voice, it came from over the top of a large red swivel chair that stood behind a desk about six metres from the table. Whoever sat in the chair had his back to Daxter, and he could see no cameras. That was the first of the voice's mistakes._

"_I chose not to take up my throne in Freedom Tower, as it represents everything about the Freedom League and their goals. I would not betray my father by allowing myself to wallow in such ideals." The speaker had as good as told Daxter who he was, that was the voice's second mistake._

"_By now you'll have figured out who I am, and I'm sure you've been told all about me by your comrades. Most of it was very likely propaganda. I, however, am not familiar with you. Your file barely covers you, referring to you simply as 'Jak's companion,' I believe there to be more of you, which is why I decided to meet you alone." The voice had told Daxter that it was alone, this was the third and last of the voice's mistakes._

_Daxter landed lightly on the floor, his paws making no sound at all as he scuttled across the floor towards the desk. The voice pattered on the whole time, making snide comments about Jak's heroism and Daxter being overshadowed. Daxter didn't care, he'd heard it all before. He scrambled up the leg of the desk, silent as a mouse. Without pausing, he snatched a pen from one of the many holders on the desk, leapt high into the air, aiming to get above the chair. As he passed the top, he grabbed the back of the chair and used his momentum to swing down. As he fell he judged where Vakor's face was, and at the last possible moment he jabbed the tip of the pen into where Vakor's eye….._

…_..Should have been. The chair was empty, and the sound of laughter filled the air._

"_Of course I would not be so stupid. I know your kind, your blind arrogance, viciousness and above all, your inability to admit your faults. Had I shown up with a hundred guards behind me, you still would have refused to admit defeat, you would have fought on futilely until I was forced to shoot you."_

_The voice paused, and the sound of footsteps made Daxter turn towards the opposite wall, and he noticed the reinforced door just in time to catch it burst open, and just in time to see Vakor stride in, with what looked like an entire battalion of KG behind him, rambling off the end of his tirade as he went._

"_That's the difference between the two of us, I admit when I'm beaten, but I do not accept that I cannot win later. So many of you have brilliantly tactical minds, but you are obsessed with getting the job done __now. __And you cannot simply wait, plan, think. That's what has always held Jak from becoming the most powerful person on the planet, which by the way I still refuse to call by that ridiculous name. Far too long winded. But anyway, my point is that patience will always win out."_

"_Take me, I could have run in during the period when the Metal-heads and KG bots were controlling most of the city, the people would have supported me in the absence of their saviour. But I waited, I planned more. I perfected the cloning technique that my father had begun, and in the darkness of Chairen, I waited."_

_One of the guards took up position next to the swivel chair, which Daxter was now lounging in, unimpressed by Vakor's speech. Apparently he wasn't finished, either. _

"_And I was right, had I entered during that part of the tale, Jak would have been exiled for good. My security systems would have made sure of that. I would not have been able to defeat the Dark Maker ship, and the world would have perished." Vakor paused, a long, drawn out, dramatic pause ensued. It continued until Daxter lost his temper._

_He leapt up onto the desk, avoiding the shooting hand of the guard as he noticed movement. "You gonna finish off that little speech and let me get outta here, or am I gonna have to come up there and finish it for ya?!"_

_Vakor looked at Daxter as if only now acknowledging his existence. He sighed disappointedly and turned his back on Daxter._

"_You're most likely wondering why I asked to see you myself. I would be."_

"_It had crossed my mind, yeah." Daxter said sarcastically._

"_I'll explain it to you, because I'm in a good mood today. But don't expect me to give you that privilege ever again."_

_Vakor paused yet again, then continued. "I wanted to find out more about you, possibly to find leverage against you and your little band of cohorts, possibly out of pure curiosity, I won't trouble you with my motives."_

"_We took a sample of your flesh tissue while you were unconscious, and took it for testing. It took us hours to find a cell that hadn't been corrupted by the dark eco, but we found one."_

_Vakor turned back to face Daxter, and this time there was pure hatred in his eyes. He pulled an electronic card out of his pocket and threw it to Daxter, who caught it deftly._

"_My doctors recognised the genetic structure, and compared it to a certain previous ruler of this city. The results were rather intriguing."_

_Daxter stared at the card, unable to process the information. Oh the electronic card was a bleeping picture of him, alongside a rotating DNA strand. Next to it, a picture of the Baron calmly sat staring back at the ottsel. Between the two pictures, there was one word._

"_Match."_

_Daxter looked up, unsure how to feel, a mixture of fear, horror, disgust, despair and the belonging that he had so longed for as a child fought for control of his heart. Vakor solved the problem with a few simple actions._

_He strode to the desk, and without pausing, spat in Daxter's face._

_Daxter wiped the viscous liquid out of his eyes as disgust won over inside him. He returned Vakor's death stare with one of his own._

"_Goodbye…..brother." Whispered Vakor, before striding out of the room, followed by his minions, leaving Daxter to stew in his own self-loathing._

_The dummy ottsel's eyes flickered open, lightly brushing the grains of sand out of his eyelashes while rubbing his eyes. He heard the howling of a storm outside, and suddenly realised he must be inside. His vision slowly unblurred and he examined his surroundings. The building was mostly made of rock, so he assumed it must be a cave. But it had been propped up with wooden shafts and mud walls, filling in barely visible cracks._

_He hopped off the straw and wood bed he was sat upon, and wandered around the circular room. It seemed to be one of many, as there was a door to either side of him, and one leading outside. _

_Voices approached the door to his left. Raised, angry voices. Being the coward he was at heart, the ottsel jumped back up onto the bed and buried himself under the pillow. He just yanked his tail under and spun round in time to peek out and see three bladed marauders burst through the door, shouting as they walked._

"_We have to show support for the new Baron or he'll annihilate us! The old Haven ignored us for the most part, but Vakor's attitude is simple: you're with us or you're dead! We can't stand against him! Not with the creatures roaming the sand picking at our scouts!" Yelled one of the marauders, it followed the first, and seemed to be in cahoots with the third, as both of them faced the first as he turned round in anger._

"_Vakor is, if anything, worse than the old Baron! If we ever want to survive we have to support the true King! He will at least be lenient with us!" Retorted the first, the force of his shout making the other two back off. They soon recovered and were back on the offensive, though._

_The third joined the argument. "We aren't meant to be a moral civilisation! We're looking for survival! Nothing more! Following Jak may or may not be the morally right course of action, but whether it is or not is irrelevant. We have more chance of surviving if we support the team in charge!"_

"_And if Jak returns? If he takes the city back from this Baron just like he did the last? What sort of welcome do you think we will get? If we support Jak now, we'll be rewarded richly, if we support Vakor, then we'll be in his favour for as long as it suits him to keep us alive! I have no time for argument from my insubordinates!! Get out!" The large marauder spun the other two around, opened the door and flung them bodily into the next room, slamming the door behind them._

_He sighed deeply and attempted to run his hands over his head, cutting his finger on one of his helmet blades and cursing. He removed the helmet and threw it at the wall angrily. It bounced off and stuck stoically in a wooden shaft. The ottsel looked up from under the pillow, but the man's face was obscured in shadow. He once again ran his hands over his head, and collapsed into a char, resting his elbow on a table and putting his head in that hand, once again hiding his face._

_The ottsel shifted slightly, making the rough materials of the bed rub together, making a scraping noise just audible to the marauder's mechanical ear._

_He jumped up, spinning towards the bed, the ottsel couldn't see his face under the edge of the blanket, but watched as the legs slowly approached the bed._

_The blanket was ripped off his back and the ottsel covered his head in his hand and dreaded the rage._

"_Ah, my little friend, it's you."_

_The ottsel was knocked off his feet, this marauder was being nice to him? Suddenly the memories of his rescue came back to him, and he remembered this stranger's kind words. But something niggled at the back of his mind, some sort of warning._

_He slowly looked up, half dreading, half yearning to see his rescuer's face._

_He gasped and scrambled away, backing against the wall. Breathing heavily._

_His rescuer's face fell. "I see you know who I am."_

_The ottsel stared into the marauder's…into the Baron's face, and nodded, slowly and jerkily._

"_Hmm, well I won't expect you to understand what you just saw, then. But I must let you know, I have learnt from my mistakes as ruler of Haven, that's why I'm supporting Jak over my own son…"_

_The dummy hadn't even considered this until now, he suddenly realised that it did make no sense. The old Praxis would care little for the moral good, only want to stay in power._

"_And I plan to make up for those mistakes, I now control the marauders, I killed their old leader and I'm going to steer them into a new age of kindness and virtuousness. I have nothing but regret for what I did to Haven's citizens, but I promise you, it will be repaid."_

_The dummy croaked slightly, still trying to process the information. Then suddenly he remembered what he had learnt about the Baron after emerging from the catacombs. A question trembled on his lips, but he found himself unable to speak._

"_I assume you're wondering why I survived?"_

_The ottsel nodded gently._

"_It is a puzzling reappearance. I barely understand it myself. I thought I had been condemned to hell."_

_The former Baron yanked the chair he had been sitting in over to beside the bed and settled down into it, clasping his hands in front of him._

"_I died." He began. "I remember feeling a lot of pain, and seeing Jak's face in front of me, and in that one, final moment, I realised all my mistakes, and knew that there was nothing I could do to make up for them in that last, desperate moment. My world went black, and I saw nothing more."_

"_Somehow, I could still think…I could see nothing but blackness, and I had no body, no form, just my consciousness drifting through nothingness. I imagine that's what we think of as hell, nothing to think about but all our mistakes, all our faults, all the people we've hurt. It was awful. Terrifying at times, and I couldn't panic, I could only curse myself more and more, and descend into my own hate."_

_The ottsel could see the pain in Praxis's eyes, it was real, it was sorrow for what he had done, and self-loathing for how he had done it._

"_It seemed like I was there in that godforsaken place for decades, but of course now I've learnt that it was only a few years. Eventually I calmed. I made peace with myself and consigned myself to the abyss, content to drift forever, dormant and unaware."_

"_But something came for me. Something or someone, I don't know. I could just feel him, a massive presence, an entity so much more vast than mine that I felt obliged to worship him, but somehow knew it would be wrong. He spoke to me in a language I didn't understand, but I got his meaning. He was taking me back, and he wanted me to make up for my mistakes. He said it was my second chance, and that I shouldn't mess it up."_

"_So I'm here, not messing it up…"_

_The dummy was speechless, all his views and beliefs had been shattered. There was no life after death, and no chance of return. But he believed the former Baron, inexplicably, he believed him._

"_And I'm going to help you." Stated the ottsel, hardening his face and extending his tiny paw._

_Praxis smiled and took the paw, shaking it gently. A momentous occasion…_

_Jak swore as something slippery swum around his ankle, spinning off into the murky depths of the water._

"_I hate sewers." He grunted, trampling forward through the tunnel. "Dax better be grateful for this. One little 'what took you so long' and he's gonna be unconscious for the journey."_

_His voice echoed around the circular pipe, giving the impression that he was no alone as his own voice was distorted and twisted by the echoes. And eerie silence followed as Jak paused to see if his voice had attracted any unwanted attention, hearing nothing, he moved on._

_Behind him, the silent stalker matched his steps…_

_Daxter flicked the pencil into the air and caught it again._

_He flicked it._

_He caught it._

_He flicked it._

_He caught it._

_He flicked it._

_Vakor shot it out of the air._

_Daxter looked at him in a frustratingly calm and uncaring way. "I was gonna use that." He said almost sarcastically…Almost._

"_I'm sure you were, my trigger finger slipped, that happens a lot." Vakor spoke through gritted teeth, he knew it was an empty threat, Daxter, despite being a rebel, was his brother._

"_Oooohhhh…get her!" Squealed Dax with a homosexual accent, flopping his hand down in Vakor's direction and picking another pencil out of the tin on Vakor's desk. Milliseconds after his hand withdrew another shot spat from the gun in Vakor's hand, sending the tin flying across the room to lie smoking near the opposite wall._

"_You would be wise not to infuriate me, I could crush you without thinking."_

_Daxter, despite his nonchalant manner, believed this fully. He stayed defiant despite his fear, Jak had taught him never to give in to intimidation, and this was the one time he was not going to ignore his friend's advice. He stared unflinchingly back at Vakor, not breaking eye contact for a second._

_Vakor looked away, and for the slightest second Daxter thought he saw something that could have been pity. One tiny, infinitesimally small shard of humanity trapped within the mind of a madman bent on destruction._

_Then it was gone._

"_You may believe that I will show mercy, that I will spare your pathetic, worthless life through some bond of brotherhood. You are mistaken. You are no more my brother than Ashelin is my sister." His speech was cold, emotionless, no longer filled with any kind of malice, or hate, or anger. Simply flat syllables slowly spelling out the plan to Daxter's death._

"_You die tomorrow."_

_THEMAKEROFLIGHT: That took a loooooong time. Writer's block is a terrible thing, people. There should be a charity for it._

_Anyway, read, review, flame, I don't really care. _


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